Chocolate
by EsperSY
Summary: It's the Winter Thanksgiving Festival and Claire has only one chocolate to give to 5 of her favorite men! The story revolves around Claire's life in this one single day, and she has troubles with her choices after every hour passed! -COMPLETE-
1. 6:00AM to 10:00AM

CHAPTER 1: 6:00am – 10:00am

...

Friday, 14 of winter.

I stared at my calendar, literally beaming at the circle of that date today. It's my first year here in Mineral Town, and unlike all the farm work I have to carry out through the seasons, festivals caught my attention ultimately. It's like my limelight from the exceptionally dull routine I have to go through every day.

Frankly, harvesting crops and taking care of animals isn't really my forte and I had to admit, I'm not particularly good at it. But fortunately, all the villagers have been nothing but extremely kind to me. They accept me. That's the only thing that keeps me going every day, the entire pillar that I need to support myself to never give up. So now, I'm actually used to all the work. Minding the animals, especially.

"Look, Max. Today's the Winter Thanksgiving Festival!" hoisting up my now grown dog, I giggled as he licked on my cheek then backs away by the cold texture. I felt bad to let the poor thing outside, even if he has his own dog house. Snowy winter days are just too cold for anyone to be outside, or maybe it's just me and my sympathetic nature. Gray sneered at me when he came over for dinner on his birthday, founding Max inside the house he's been invited in, then mocked that my house smells like dog shit. It didn't take long for Max to pounce on the guy and a game of 'give-me-my-cap-back-you-damn-mutt' to take place. I have to admit, I owe this dog big time for granting me a long chain of amusement that night.

"Come on, Max! That's enough. I've got a pregnant cow that needs me," I whined after tossing the dog ball he nudged me with again. The auburn-furred dog looks disappointed after loosing to Hana on the annual Dog Race 4 days ago, thus started torturing me by doubling his training practice. When I got the ball back and opened the cabinet to store it, Max started whimpering – its usual demeanor before giving me his deadly puppy dog eyes. Noticing this, I hurried to exit the house as the master of sucking up started nibbling on the pants of my overalls. After successfully escaping the wrath of his adorable manner, I leaned on my closed door as I sighed; a cloud of water vapor escaped my mouth. A dog that smart should be illegal. Got to remember to tell Harris after this.

Just as I'm about to walk to the warmth of my barn, the corner of my eye caught someone about to enter the neighboring building. He shuffled at the doorstep, busy shedding the snow flakes off his shoulders. Glancing at that familiar form, with that large UMA print on his hat, I grinned, "Morning, Gray!"

The aforementioned person swings his head to my direction, his annoyed eyes meeting my waving arm before coldly replies, "Your mutt's spit is still dripping off my hat, damn it." I found my arm went limb as I shot him a rather apologetic grin, "You're still not over that?"

"It's freaking snowing and my hat's cold by the frosting of your demon's saliva! What do you think?!"

I blinked at him. My lips slanted, trying to hold back the laughter that's about to burst out by both his retort and the flashback of the look on his face when Max chewed his hat. Seeing I'm not about to apologize anytime soon, he turned the knob of the blacksmith door, and that's when I fall to the ground, laughing, "Okay, okay!! Hahaha!! I'm sor—HAHAH!! Sorry! I'm sorry!! Gyahahah!!! But it's just too funny seeing you suffer!"

That's the last straw for Gray. He slammed the door closed as hard as he can after he went it. I wiped off the tear leaking from my left eye with a cold hand, before clutching my sides and try to stagger up my feet. Massaging my hurting cheeks from that excessive laugh on the way to the barn, I feel partly grateful that blacksmith works right beside my farm. Annoying Gray is my daily routine perhaps. If not at Saibara's, the library is always good. Even Mary seems to enjoy Gray's irritation, despite how she countered me, trying to defend the young blacksmith.

Chuckling at the thought, I enter the double doors and instantly spot my favorite cow...or my only cow actually, "Hi Nessa! 10 more days to go! Hold on strongly, honey." Bringing out my brush, I gently brush the huge pregnant cow. My eyes instantly caught the bulging belly this cow burdened, picturing that soon it's going to be me who's the pregnant one. Shoulders dropping, my blonde hair slowly falls over my hanging face, covering a part of my darkened eyes. This cow amazingly noticed my change of mood as it mooed, snuggling its head to my arm. Nessa successfully delivered the exact message she wanted to; no matter what's going to happen to me, she's still going to be right here inside the barn, waiting for me. She planted a smile on my face too as she mooed when I stroke her head, "Oh, sorry honey, my hands are too cold, huh? At least I can't touch your udder now. Haha! Lucky you!"

Then, I move on to Aiden, my golden-wool sheep. Truth to be told, when I even see that fluffy wool on her, I remembered Doctor Trent. Probably because of my last gift to him was an armful of large wool. I still remembered what happened clearly on my head. The time when his straight face drastically changed into this strangely appealing expression; surprising me so greatly to the point of slipping backwards and knocking down some neatly stacked medical files down with me. I'm not a perfect blonde, I admit, that's why I spent an hour inside the hospital apologizing and fixing my mess, and thanking Elli for being kind enough to help me out. Truly, is being perceptive of how pale a doctor's skin lately to the point of giving him wool in consideration of knitting a decent scarf for his well-being so shocking?

Aiden brought me back to reality as she whined, showing off her golden wool, begging for me to sheer it off of her, probably. But alas, my sympathetic nature forbids me to, "It's too cold to NOT have wool, Aiden. ...And don't give me those eyes. You've been hanging out with Max a lot, huh? Well, it won't work on me, you silly sheep, it won't!"

Walking out of the barn with my rucksack containing golden wool, I dragged myself to the horse stable next. With a pout, I took my time complaining to the poor horse, "Honestly Frey, I don't get animals and their adorable eyes! And to think I don't generally like animals until you guys came stampeding in my life. ...And now I love all of you to no end. Strange how life works it way, changing us for the better like this, isn't it?" brushing the horse while chatting with him, he neighed in reply, probably bored of my selfish complaining, so I rolled my eyes and changed the topic…

"Remember last season, in autumn? The Fall Horse Race? And you remember Gray, right? Gray's there at the Fall Horse Race...it kind of surprised me 'cause in the Spring Horse Race, Zack told me he can't come because Saibara won't let him. Anyway, you know when I even step 10 meter radius near him, he'll be seething at me for stealing the air he breathes or something...but, Frey! He actually smiled at me there that time! Seriously, I totally forgot the biting sentence I reserved for him in my head. I don't know, he said something about there's no 'old man' around that day, and went on how excited he is to be there. And you know something?! He said something about you! I was so surprised he even know you exist here—"

A loud neigh.

"Shush, I'm not finished. I was hacking my brain to remember if I mentioned you in any of our debates and tongue wars--"

A louder neigh.

"Huh? What do you mean he met you?"

An acknowledging neigh.

"...You've got to be kidding me! When?! Did he beat you up?! Don't worry, I'll storm to him right now with my axe--"

An ear-busting neigh.

"Okay, okay!! Calm down, boy! Calm down... Did he, by any chance, give you carrots?"

No neigh at all.

"Aww, Frey!! Come on!! Now I have to THANK him! You know how much he hates my guts! Goddess!"

A nudge on the side of my face.

"...Max taught everyone his lethal tricks, does he?"

A rather innocent neigh.

"I have to strangle that dog one day..."

It's surprising to see just how amazing these animals are when you're living with them. Every word you said, they're ready to hear despite their blank look, and it almost seems like they understand what you're saying, especially when you look right in their eyes, those deep black understanding eyes. Everyone in the village are kind, sure, but the only creatures that I turn to when I need a listening ear...is the animals. MY animals. ...My family.

Frankly, being a farmer isn't so bad.

Heading towards the chicken coop, I rubbed both of my hands. Only 5 minutes being outside and winter's air is already working its way, stinging my skin. Now that I think about it, I don't have any other clothes besides this overall. No scarves, jackets, mittens! Especially mittens! Curse that wrecking ship...why don't my suitcase just magically reach Mineral Town beach, anyway... Ah well, good thing I got used living here. Entering the chicken coop, I grinned at all the 8 chickens clucking their way at my presence, "Miss me, everyone?!"

15 minutes passed, when suddenly the door of the chicken coop flung open and there stood a shivering spectacled young man outside with bags of sacks in his arms. I turned to the door, surprised to see him. He shot me the same look. A moment of silence descended...until the chickens' clucking brought both of us back.

"Claire?"

"Rick?"

"You're sitting inside a chicken coop...and your chickens are sitting all over you..."

"I was talking to them."

"You're talking...to chickens?"

"Hearing that coming out from you out of all people is very surprising, Rick."

"I meant that as a compliment, actually."

"Oh. Then, thanks...? Wait, what are you doing here anyway?"

"I forgot to send you the chicken feed you ordered yesterday, so uhm...sorry. Here, I got it right now."

"Oh, thanks Rick!! I was thinking to dig up some worms just now. That's what I was talking about with the chickens."

"I love you, Claire."

"Ha-ha, very funny. Now, come on. Give me a hand here."

I stood up after he lend a hand to help, and we both take our time sprinkling chicken feed inside the feed boxes then collect the eggs. When we're done using the Mayonnaise Maker and toss some large mayonnaises into the shipping bin there, I asked if he'd like a hot cup of drink inside my house, which he gratefully accepts. After stepping outside the sanctuary of the chicken coop, we were greeted by the sudden harsh gust of winter gale. Still not used with winter milieu, my muscles tightened by the extremely cold air, all my limbs twitched, and unintentionally elbowing poor Rick behind me also. As fate descended, the poor man tumbled down on the snow with a thud, startling me.

"Oh Goddess! Rick!! I'm so sorry!!" I instantly pull him up, so quickly that he ended up plummeting on top of me. While falling backwards, time seemed to stop as I suddenly caught the view so clearly in my head, so accurately, even the tiny flakes of snow that rains on us, but particularly how horrified Rick looked...since he's only about a few inches apart from my face. Some vapor escaped my mouth by his weight, and instead of whining in pain, I ended up snorting, stifling, then finally laughing as Rick, alarmed that he accidentally touched my bosom, startled in his continuous apology. Seeing him literally kneeling and bowing at me like I'm some divine goddess was hilarious as hell. It took me quite some time to calm him down, when I finally noticed something different about the chicken farmer, "Rick, where's your glasses?" He replied a dumbfounded, "Huh?" and we're both off hunting for his spectacles. After circling and spreading our arms on the snow near the area where we fall, I finally saw a shimmer of light near the bridge.

"Oh! There it is!" literally jumping over the kneeling Rick and satisfyingly picking up the glasses, I kneel in front of the chicken farmer as he lifts his head up towards me. I blinked at his slightly freckled face before smiling wide, "Rick, has anyone ever told you how cute you look without your glasses?"

That made his face colored to deep red. I giggled like a typical blonde should as I carefully place the glasses on him, smiling sincerely. He grows even redder at that, and I can't help but to burst into my signature laughter, "Aww! You have this amazing shade of red when you're like this, it's so funny!!" His expression plunged down as he stood up, "Congratulations for embarrassing me, Claire. Right in front of a _girl_, of all things."

"Aw, cheer up! At least it's a farmer girl!" I stood with a grin, secretly feeling rather taken aback by my own words. Though a bit bothered by it, I managed to keep myself balanced as Rick didn't seem to even notice my shadowed eyes. He still didn't look too happy though as he started to walk off, "Well, you just ultimately destroyed my masculinity, Claire. Just so you know." That answer didn't sound too funny as it's supposed to seem, so I ran passed him just to turn around and look at Rick right in the eyes, "I'm sorry, alright? Sorry for laughing at you. Please don't be angry, I don't need another Gray in my life."

"Pfft..."

"...Rick?"

"Ah-hahaha!!"

"Rick!!"

"Hahah!! Oh Claire, you should see your face just now!!"

"I can't believe you!"

"Hah! Well, now we're even!"

"...Fine! Come on, let's get some hot milk, I'm freezing."

Five minutes after that, I found myself tongue-tied sitting across Rick inside my house, sipping hot milk. Spots of snow were all over us now due to the fall we had earlier. It was worth a picture to laugh at actually, but the silence between us is just way too awkward. So, I was just about to start a conversation when the chicken farmer beats me to it, "Do you really mean it?" I blinked, "Um, you've...got to be more specific, Rick."

"Do you mean what you said?"

"Again, with the specific requirement."

"T-that thing you said without my glasses..."

I snickered, "You took that compliment to heart, did cha?"

His eyes frowned for his mouth.

Seeing that reaction, I quickly responded, "W-well! Of course I mean it! You have a pair of beautiful blue eyes, you know?"

Again that incredibly amusing shade of red returned, and I would've offended him again by bursting into a hysterical fit of laughter right at that moment if Max didn't save me from it by literally hopping on my lap and licked my cheek, making me laugh anyhow, but would give the wrong impression that I'm laughing because Max tickled me. And I should say this again; I owe this clever dog big time.

Rick tries to finish his drink quickly after that, probably to hide his flushing face, giving me plenty of time to compose myself to stop laughing. Max stared up at me with those meaningful black beads of his, doubtlessly trying to say something to me. I didn't quite catch what this smart dog is trying to say, as I'm desperately trying to stop my stifling laughter by clutching my sides. That attempt isn't successful, though Rick's reply did...

"Thanks. And right back at you, Claire."

...

_(A/N: THUS...ended Chapter 1~! And, no, this ain't a whole ClaireXRick thing...in fact, the pairing depends on how YOU look at it. ^____^ Will write further if I receive positive feedbacks. Constructive criticism is also needed. My writing's too simple, I know, but I'm trying. ^^; Please read and review!! THANK YOU~!!!)_


	2. 10:00AM to 1:00PM

_(A/N: Firstly, I would like to thank all 5 of my lovely reviewers, for giving me hope and boost to continue writing this. =D I apologize for not submitting this chapter earlier, as my Microsoft Word suddenly decided to commit suicide and leave me stranded alone while gaping at the lost chapter I had painstakingly wrote. D: Yes, anyway, I now shall continue full-speed, hopefully, in my father's laptop to finish this fanfic! XD Yaaay~! …Oh, and did I mentioned this is my first ever fanfic?)_

…

CHAPTER 2: 10:00am – 1:00pm

I half-leaned myself against my front door as I stared at Rick walking off my farm. The cool wind breeze doesn't appear to faze me at all as I seemed to have zoned out, and as much as I want to disbelieve it, staring straight at the chicken farmer. Unfortunately for that particular morning, Rick decided to turn his head back behind his shoulder, and of course as fate loves it, caught me ogling at him. Yeah, I can hear fate laughing its head off at me at that moment.

He was stunned to see a pair of baby blue eyes staring right back at his own pair, well of course he is, I'm already half-dead from the shock. Cusses bubbled over my lips as I fumbled with my doorknob and literally fell over inside my house before slamming the door closed with my legs. Goddess, I hope Rick didn't catch that oh-so-graceful entrance scene. Laying there motionlessly on my floor-covering right at the door, with my legs vertically upwards leaning against the freaking door, a cloud of vapor was released from my mouth. Max approached me after a while, licking my forehead to calm me from that painfully embarrassing moment.

What was I doing?! Staring at a man like that! It's not a decent neighboring attitude! _Goddess...  
_

Silently thanking the universe for not granting Rick Manna's ability to tattle tale, I ruffle Max's head before heading out into the cold cruel winter morning. Frozen dewdrops decorated at the tips of my mailbox, silently seething at me with untold hatred of abandoning it for the last 14 days. Well, I can't help to ignore it unless I own a pair of mittens.

Well, due to the snow forbidding me to do some farming unless I own a greenhouse, I escaped my farm early...and went straight to Saibara's, naturally. Thus begins the start of my daily routine. I tried to twist the doorknob open, but it's locked. Honestly, I can't get myself to remember the exact date of when my watering can upgrading will be finished. Oh well, as long as it's before spring season, I don't mind. Not like I can use it now, anyway. Plus, I can see it so vividly how grateful that over-sensitive Gray is to remove me from his sight as often as possible.

Then, I went straight to the Winery. Well, the storeroom, actually. With a bright smile, I slammed opened the door and greeted a highly enthusiastic, "Hi Cliff!" only to found out that the aforementioned person is nowhere in my peripheral vision. I blinked dumbly at the silence. He's supposed to be here...it's not his day off and it's the correct time for me to be throwing stupid jokes at him, where is he? After another round of scanning, I frowned and felt almost pitiful for the untouched Miso Soup in my rucksack since there's no Cliff for it to be presented.

"Duke, have you seen Cliff?"

"Oh, not today, surprisingly," answered a very flustered Duke. He's all alone in the orchard now, and without Cliff to assist him, he seems to be moving pretty slow. My inner voice poked me to at least help him carry the crates of grapes he's trying to lift, and I did, no matter how I stumbled afterwards and crashed the crates. Typical. After an hour of collecting all the fallen grapes and apologizing to poor Duke, I head out to the next building...Mary's library.

Well, not before visiting Anna and Basil first to give them my daily morning greetings. Like usual, I presented Basil a random grass I picked from the wild yesterday, and after hearing his usual blabbing of the whole ecological needs the grass required to even live(which Anna describes as a miracle for me to stand there and absorbing the knowledge without falling asleep...every single day), I retreated to the kitchen to meet Anna. Usually, I would give her a mere simple egg which she greatly needs for her secret baking obsession, but today, since there's no Cliff for the Miso Soup, I gave her just that.

At first, she seems rather taken aback by the sudden strange offering, and she literally takes a sip of the soup right in front of me. It positively scared me when Anna shot me an odd look, then her hand flied to the top of my head, and she freaking patted me. On the head. She said the strangest thing too, "Claire, we must absolutely arrange a meeting with the women at the town square when the weather is fine, okay dear?"

Of course, this strikes as creepy any time of the day. Why would I want to hang around gossiping all day when I have a ton of things to do with barely enough time? Anna seems to have read my mind and countered strictly, "You MUST. It's of your bridal future."

Yep, this scene would efficiently be summarized by the letters w, t and f. I honestly wanted to yell out a good old traditional 'WHAT?!' but remembering this is my best friend's mother I'm talking to, I held back and after a moment, merely nodded, very slowly. "Kaaay..."

"Good," Anna returned my nod with her own sure-footed one before dismissing me. It seems that incident truly did somehow impact me by the way I clambered up the stairs. Basil even asked me if I needed the medicinal grass back. As I entered the library from upstairs, I could see Mary looking up expectantly at me.

"Well, you're an hour late, Claire."

"I crashed crates of grapes, and raped by fate."

"Have you ever considered being a poet?"

"You know there's nothing poetic about me. Oh and Mary, shocking news, your mother invited me to join the gossip group just now to probably grant me qualification of marriage in this town."

The dark-haired librarian laughed politely as I reached the stairs and climbed down, this time less awkwardly, in order not to stumble down and smashed a book-filled rack now. Really, I've been attacked by flying literary works too much to even wish to force this quiet girl into one of her insane modes. Mary's a sweet girl and she's a great friend, the only thing we didn't share is our perception of my certain neighbor. She simply thinks Gray is intriguing, I simply though that Gray has too many issues fit to be mentally imbalanced, yet he's not, and this amazes me.

"Have you bought a chocolate for today's thanksgiving festival?" The spectacled young woman started our daily conversation. She has a knack of branching off the most ordinary of topics into the secrets of the universe. It's a shame that not everyone visit this amazing library to meet the sweetest and smartest librarian ever to exist in mortal. Gray seems to be aware of this too, and thus, is the only common thing we share; Mary.

"No, Mary, not yet. Say, can you help me sort things out with who I'm giving a single bar of chocolate to?"

"...Oh dear..."

"Come on, give me an ear. I mean, really, every single man in this town has been nothing but kind and welcoming, and I'd like to deliver each of them a bar of chocolate if I could to let them know how awesome they are..."

"Claire... Your kindness is your most extraordinary quality, and Mineral Town is blessed to have such a nice being living with us."

I flushed, "W-well, I propose we attack Karen's dad to let us purchase multiple chocolates!"

This makes Mary laughed, she thought this is a joke? Still, I don't want her to stop laughing; she's just way too cute that way. Smiling, I escaped the library before a certain blue-eyed man showed up and seek refuge inside Ellen's cozy house. Stu seems glad of my sudden appearance.

I have to admit, playful little boys are a joy to look at. As he drags me deeper inside the house, he took his time displaying his bug collection to me before Ellen woke up on her rocking chair. "Oh! Oh, Claire dear, is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me. How are you? Oh, and here." I pulled out a freshly picked flower from my rucksack. I don't know how, but my rucksack can magically store items to its best quality like its some portable hybrid of fridge and shelf or something. Ellen made a sound of surprised pleasure, and said the very thing I've wanted to hear on this cold day. "Thank you, Claire."

I smiled gleefully, kind of stupid if viewed from afar, but each and every soul who thanked me truly warms my insides that could beat my frozen stature by any moment. I like making people happy, and though this seems like a very childish dream with all the current problems the world is facing, I wish that everyone in this world would be as joyful as the people in Mineral Town are.

Just as I'm about to head out to the Mayor's house, Stu called me. "Hold on, Claire! Grandma, aren't you forgetting what Doctor Trent wants you to give?"

I raised a brow, well this is a surprise. Ellen took a moment to remember, and when she did, she outburst a lovely set of old-people words that is somehow extinct in this time and day, "Oh, good heavens! Oh my dear Goddess, thank you, Stu. Claire dear, come here for a while. Stu, would you please pull that shelf over there and find it for me, dear?"

I nervously approached the old woman, my eyes trailing to the shelf where Stu is busy ransacking. What sort of thing the doctor possible wants Ellen to do? To me, for all that matters. I'm nothing but a—

"Oh my dear Harvest Goddess..."

The old-people outburst is getting to me. You know why? Because Stu had finally found the thing and happily presented it to me, the very thing I've been wishing since the first day of winter; a lovely pair of woolen mittens! With my mouth in a perfect 'o', I breathlessly collect them from Stu's outstretched hands, stares at it for a moment before looking back at the smiling Ellen.

"Dear Trent gave me his scarf to knit into those."

Stu fell on the floor laughing hysterically watching how shocked my face expression must be. "B-but! That scarf...I gave it to him first! This is..." I found my gaze right back at the pair of perfectly knitted mittens. "This is...so unfair..."

I was so surprised, that I forgot to visit the mayor and went straight to the Mineral Town Hospital, where Elli greeted me acknowledgedly. "Is Doctor busy?!" is the first question I shot her with. The poor nurse was so astonished at the urgency of my tone that she only shook her head sideways continuously, motioning me to Doctor's office.

I rushed my way there, and probably, upon seeing the mittens in my hands, the doctor revealed a rare reserved expression of his, somehow mixture of pleasure and awkwardness. Advancing my steps towards him, I slammed the mittens on his table, "I gave this to YOU!" I partly screamed, and this shocked even me. So imagine how Doctor's expression would be.

...Nope, no expressions. Just that usual straight face of his.

I'm not angry at him, no I could never. I'm just...this grand gesture of him doesn't seem to fit with how things work with me. To me, it seems like the doctor is returning back my gift for him to me, and the first thing that popped out of my mind is how ungrateful he is to simply asked Ellen and—

"Thank you, Claire."

I looked up to meet his blank eyes with his face now loosening its strings and displaying a sort of calm interest at how my face contorted into. Seems he knows my weakness of people thanking me...

"Thank you for your consideration of my well-being," he started sedately, and then continues with his eyes very much focused into mine, "I'm a doctor in this town. I watched over everyone's welfare. It is my responsibility to keep in check with everyone's health and development." There was a pause from his solemn speech as he cleverly escaped our eye-contact. Doctor Trent then slowly leaned back onto his chair and bringing a hand up on his face, covering his whole facial features from me ultimately.

I calmed down a bit when seeing how...strangely...vulnerable the doctor seems now. It's like he's hiding something, yet he wants to show it to me, but he's holding himself back. Well, whatever he's feeling, I don't like him going through this just because of my silly opinions. Damn my inner kindness... "Doctor, I'm sorry, I—"

My apology was cut short, another taboo for my personal belief, but I have to let it slide this time because Doctor Trent had abruptly stood up from his chair, grabbed one of the mitten, seized one of my hand from the other side of the table, and slowly, trying to literally force my hand to fit inside the mitten.

His eyes are covered by the black bangs of his hair, and I was choked with silence by how awkward this scene is. His hands are so warm, contradicting how freezing mine must felt. The mitten perfectly fitted, much to his delight according to that silent relieving sigh of his, then he picked up the other mitten, dropping the hand he's holding earlier and motioning me to bring my other hand up on his warm palm.

I didn't move, and the doctor seemed to have expected this. He brings his face up, directly meeting my weirded-out gaze, and surprisingly, chuckled at the sight. _...Well perfect, I just met an adult-version of Stu._

"Claire, I thank you immensely, for always regarding my well-being. It's nice to know that, for once, someone is watching over me, for a change."

I didn't say anything, mostly because all the responds in my head seems to be so cliched that I didn't want to make it worst. But I was smiling, and Doctor Trent saw this. With a singular chuckle escaping his throat, he hangs his waiting hand up, "Your hand, Claire."

At this, I can't help but to laugh at how terribly wrong that sounds, it's like he's asking me for marriage. Nevertheless, I placed my ungloved hand on his, and Doctor begins to put the mittens on me. "Why do I suddenly feel like Cinderella?" I heard my own voice asked.

The doctor looks at me with his eyebrows creasing, seemingly confused. "Pardon?" Okay, maybe he is confused.

"Cinderella...that children tale."

His eyes still held a meaning that he is obviously downright perplexed. Now I'm the one with my eyebrows creasing, "You're joking. ...You have never heard of Cinderella before?"

By my tone that merely suggested the fact he hears was supposed to be common, Doctor Trent slowly shook his head with lacking confidence of this topic. Very slowly. That shows that he doesn't have a normal childhood, I figure.

But it doesn't matter. I sighed staring at the snow-white mittens covering my hands. Soon after the whole day is done, I bet the mittens would get horribly stained. I'm a farmer, not a sheep. Then again, why would the doctor returned this to me? Maybe he didn't like it? Or maybe its my horrible knitting... I'm sure Aiden's wool is soft and comfy enough--

"I understand of your frustration that I have to return your gift back to you, and I've also noticed how incredibly cold the weather is turning. You need the wool more than I do, Claire, you run around the town and up the hills every day, and I just couldn't imagine you without at least a pair of mittens."

Well, that got me stunned. I stared as Doctor Trent retreated back to sit on his chair, a sort of half-smile had already settled on his flawless face. "Thank you, though, for the scarf. It certainly is quite comfortable to wear."

I can't help the creeping grin on my face. "My sheep, Aiden, produce the wool! She'll be happy to know that you like the scarf, Doctor!" Crap, I sounded like a 5-year-old being told that my toys are awesome. Well, I can't help it, my toys are awesome! It doesn't hurt to show off once in a while, right?

Doctor Trent smiled, he's like the epitome of perfection, no wonder Elli falls for him. ...Wait. Oh crap. Elli!

"Ah! Uh... Doctor Trent, I am indebted to you of your concern for me, truly. You're a great caring Doctor, and I'm glad you're here, so thanks!!" I said out quickly without wasting a breath or much thought on what exactly did I said while backing away and exiting his office to approach the nurse now, leaving a blinking doctor alone behind his desk.

"Elli!! Elli, Elli, Elli!" I made a sharp turn to the counter where the brown-haired nurse was seated. The timid nurse then sat up straight at my sudden summoning of her, and uttered a surprised, "Y-yes? May I help y--"

"Elli, I'm so SO sorry that I screamed at you earlier! A-and here!" I hurriedly pulled out Aiden's golden wool from my rucksack and puts it in front of the perplexed nurse.

"Claire! What--"

"Please give it to the doctor...!"

Elli did a full round of eye-blinking for a moment. "O-oh? But.."

"No, please. Doctor only listens to you, Elli. Say the wool's from you, I don't mind, it just feels...so unfair...that he gets to take care of others, and we're not allowed to take care of him."

Elli gave out a sigh and an adorable smile, then nodded slowly. "Alright, Claire. I'll knit this into the scarf and say it's from you. Only because you're definitely right that he needs us to watch over him."

My grin couldn't get any wider as I half-hugged Elli from in front of the counter. "Thanks, Elli!! I'll get back to you on that on your next birthday!"

With a nod, I exited the Hospital with a smile, and a brand new Ellen-knitted pair of fantastic wool mittens warming my hands, courtesy to the ever unemotional Doctor Trent.

Or perhaps...he wasn't that unemotional after all.

...

_(A/N: Awww... Claire X Doctor fluff. =3 Uh...well, at least, I tried to do that. _ You see what I'm trying to do by now, right? For every 3 hours of Claire's life and daily routines, I inserted a bit of fluff with her and a random bachelor. Previous chapter is Rick's moment, now seems to be Doctor's...guess who the next is? XD Please leave a vote to increase the poll voting of who ends up with Claire's chocolate at the end of the day~! =D The more people comment, the faster I go! ^o^ Much appreciated!)  
_


	3. 1:00PM to 4:00PM

_(A/N: I...seriously got a case of writer's block - big time. I procrastinate SO MUCH these days, and RP-ing makes me forget about the story... XD I'm sorry. LOL Anyway, enjoy chappie 3! :D I got inspired by a random HM fanfic titled "Seventeen"...and felt sad I can't write deep meanigful fics without rainbows and butterflies...yet. So uh...this is a sad attempt. XD)_

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**CHAPTER 3: 1:00PM - 4:00PM**

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"Please, Karen, I beg of you, PLEASE!"

Here I am, standing inside the Supermarket, creating yet another unnecessary scene. Well, not much of standing, I was actually kneeling with my mittens-encrusted hands clasped together in front of a very rattled Karen.

"Claire, stop that! I said we can't, so we CAN'T!"

"I'm begging you!"

"What part of CAN'T do you not understand?"

Jeff stood beside us both, timidly trying to ease up the situation...to no avail, of course. I was kneeling in front of him a moment earlier before Karen steps up for her father, so I turned to her, and this is what is currently happening. Fortunately, nobody else is inside the shop.

"But there's just SO many people I'd like to give chocolate to!"

"I'm sorry, Claire, but you can only buy ONE chocolate." Karen stood her ground, and she stood strongly. I partly pouted.

"S-sorry. W-we are honestly out of stock for the chocolates, so if you purchase more than one, there's no more for the others to buy. Especially for today..." Though stammering initially, Jeff managed to delivered his point. A cloud of vapour unknowingly was heaved out of my lips in despair, and after a short moment contemplation, I finally got off of my knees and stood properly in front of the two.

"Well...alright. Fine." My tone obviously reveal how intensely dissapointed I am.

Jeff frowned at that tone, but retreated behind the counter anyway. I trudged my way to the food aisle, sadly eying the single chocolate on display. Karen's footsteps behind me totally escaped my notice, until she popped herself beside me, and rested an elbow on my shoulder.

"I know you're one famous farmer, but isn't it kind of...unfair to be sweeping every bachelor with chocolates?" Karen joked, though infused with a questioning glance. I know Karen, she's demanding why I would like to purchase so many chocolates in one go...in her own words.

A smile curved up my lips almost naturally as I glanced at her. "I thought chocolates works as a sign of gratefulness over here."

"Chocolates also represents love and affection in other places."

_Touche, Karen..._

Ignoring the brunette, I grabbed a bar of chocolate and quickly skipped my way around Karen and into the safety of Jeff's counter. I slammed the chocolate none too mildly in front of him and beamed him my brightest grin, "One bar of chocolate, please!"

All the way as I walked the path towards the church, I didn't even bother putting the chocolate in my rucksack. It was on my palms, and I stared at it like it's a living breathing fragile baby. Fascination...and full of care. That's probably what my eyes look like right now.

I thought I could find Cliff at the church, so I finally put the chocolate back in my rucksack the moment I stood in front of the double-doors of the church. The snow is falling mercilessly at the moment, so I'm glad I reached shelter on time.

"Cliff?"

Same thing at the Winery store room. No replies. Just...silent.

Carter doesn't seem to be on his stand too. My eyes darted right at the confession room.

"Uh...Carter?"

"Close the door, please."

"I'm sorry, I'm not here for a confession."

"Then, would you like to--"

"Carter, have you seen Cliff?"

"...No, I haven't. Isn't he outside sitting on one of the chairs?"

"He's not. And this is starting to seriously make me worry, Carter."

There's a slight shuffling in the darkness of the confession room before Carter steps out into the light and I gave him way to exit the room. He walked out and calmly observed the whole inside of the church, "Oh. Where is he?"

"He's not at the Winery, and he's not here...then..."

"Maybe he's still at the inn? It's a terribly cold blizzard outside, maybe he stays inside for today. ...Actually, in my opinion, you should too, Claire."

I stared at Carter's calm reassuring smile. And like a chain reaction, the same smile was delivered right back at him, "Thanks so much, Carter." There's something about the pastor that made even the most terrorizing atmosphere calmed down into a serene air.

He nodded, and notices something new of me. "Oh! Claire, you're wearing mittens."

I looked at my own two hands, and smiled wide at the wool. I can only manage a small nod as a reply to him.

"That's good. It's rather ironic that Cliff was going on about getting you mittens yesterday."

I was stunned silent. "He was?"

The snow fall and fall without any intention of ceasing...but I don't care. I'm dead worried of a certain punk-masked timid traveler. I left hurried footprints on the thickening snow covering the walk-path towards the town square.

'_Cliff was incredibly worried of your well-being, Claire._' I can hear Carter's explanation echoing in my head from back at the church. The growing attention of men towards my welfare is good and all, but there is such a thing as a limit.

"Well, look in a mirror, idiot..." I mumbled, frustration reserved for Cliff grew as I entered the town square, suddenly having the urge to scream out loud in the middle of the square. "Doesn't he know I'm worried about HIS stupid rear? Even if I'm a girl, it doesn't mean I'm that weak to be collapsing in the snow--"

The sound under my boot paused me. I lift my leg up, and surprised to see a slightly crumpled piece of...picture? Quirking a brow, I bent down to collect it and stare at it strangely. Two lovely women are on the picture, one looks rather young and oddly, very similar to Cliff. Well, the eyebrows and the hair, at least.

Just a bit beyond the corner of my eyes, I caught sight of something dark in the middle of all the white snow. Something that laid right at the center of the square... '_Hey, I reserved that spot in my mind to scream out!_'

It took a moment for me to realize that dark something is actually a person. An unconcious person. His long chocolate brown ponytail danced with the ruthless winter gale, and that's when my eyes widened to the fullest extent.

"CLIFF!"

There's this pain in my chest, like something inside me just dropped like an anchor. My heart skipped a bit, and in a blink of an eye, I was at his side, shaking his form vigorously. I got my wish to scream in front of the square alright, screaming Cliff's name over and over, that is.

"Oh shyte, Cliff! Cliff, wake up, stop freaking me out! Cliff...!"

I never knew I needed Harris to walk by the square so much. Too bad it's not his usual route at this time of the day. Cliff's still unconscious no matter how wildly I tried to shake him, and due to the three seasons of swinging sickles and hoes and hammers and axes, it IS quite a feat for Cliff to still be unconscious.

I started to panic...well, panic more, that is. What if he got attacked by something? Maybe he suffers an old heritage sickness? ...Or is he...dying?

"WAAAHH! CLIFF! CLIFF, WAKE THE HELL UP...!"

The thought of it only make things worst for my concern. Though, the fear does has its perks. Somehow, it gave birth to an unimaginable strength I could never see myself wielding.

Slinging Cliff's cold arm around my shoulders, I literally lifted him high enough to make him half-stand and painstakingly dragged him all the way to the nearest building; the inn. The snow and the wind only makes the journey that much more difficult, but at least this temporary strength is especially helpful right now.

Who knows fear could have _this_ much power?

The moment I pushed myself passed the inn's double-doors, I was greeted by Ann's highly cheerful welcome. The inn's floor was like a sort of unsacred field, as the instant I stepped inside it, my trembling legs couldn't take it anymore. I literally slammed myself and Cliff face-first on the floor.

Ann screamed, something I never expected her to do, but it's all good, cause it pulls quite a lot of attention towards us. Cliff's arm on the back of my neck seems so heavy right now, it could squeeze the life out of me. Doug pulled the guy up though before he had the time to kill me, and Ann rushes for my aid...something else that I cannot imagine since her beloved is unconscious at the moment.

"Don't...you want to go and see if Cliff's okay...?"

Goddess, even my voice sounded like I just ran a full 10 laps up and down the mountain.

"Dad got him, don't worry. And Cliff's a tough guy, he'll be fine."

Damn, now even _Ann_ of all people thinks I'm weak just because I'm a girl? Just when I was about to voice out my impatience, Doug called out to his daughter.

"Ann, I'm taking Cliff to the clinic. You stay here with Claire."

"On it, dad!"

Even though I was now up and walking with Ann supporting me quite a distance away from the inn's entrance, the moment when Doug opened the door to carry Cliff out, I can still feel the piercing wind biting my skin...even when I'm wearing the best mittens ever made!

"Claire, what the heck just happened?"

Ann had settled me down on a seat at the table near the stairs, and thankfully my frostbitten fingers doesn't allow me to scrunch up a fist to knock this girl on the head. I just gone through an excruciating amount of fear just a few seconds ago, and my limbs now feel kind of aching with dragging Cliff and all...so can't she just give me some air for a few seconds?

...No, of course she can't, she's Ann. The feisty, headstrong, pushy Ann.

"You didn't literally wham Cliff with the hammer, did you?"

I forgot to add insensitive in that sentence. "Who do you think I am? Gray?"

"No, no. Gray's image is better suited with a sickle, so he can instantly slice people's head off. You, on the other hand, fits the image of handling the huge upgraded hammer."

"...I don't know if I should feel annoyed or proud right now."

"Aw, come on, you're the only girl in the village that can even USE a hammer. Be proud and ROAR! Roar like the frail woman you are!"

I burst into fits of laughter, warming myself up with that much-needed reaction, and finally settles with a smile. I also forgot to add humorous in Ann's personality description, it seems. The waitress seems satisfied of my reaction too, then grinned along with me like the light-hearted friend she is.

"Nothing too serious happened, Cliff fell unconcious in the middle of the town square. ...What is he doing there, anyway?"

Ann's smile falters slowly at the mention of the news and the light in her eyes slightly wavers. "He's acting strange since morning, actually."

I leaned slightly forward to show my interest in her tale, so Ann settled down to the other seat beside mine. "He didn't finish his breakfast today, oddly. And he spaced out more than usual too."

"...Weird."

"I'm worried...but dad's on the case, so it's gonna turn out O-KAY." Ann flashes her infamous widening grin at me, and I could only smile in response of her everlasting energy and optimism. The cold's getting to me, so I asked her, "Hey Ann, can I order--"

"What on earth is that?" I remind myself Ann is random, so is her attention. She not only cuts my question, she's pointing at my mittens. Good thing she's pointing at the right item, or I would be pissed and really bring out my hammer.

"Why, they're the finest pair of mitten made by the finest pair of hands and produced by the finest sheep in all of existence, is all." Proudly, I stated, straightening my sitting posture.

"Not that, silly. THAT!" The redhead took the initiative to open the grip of my frozen fingers, which I humbly yelped in pain, and found a crumpled piece of picture inside on my palm.

"Oh yeah..." I trailed, suddenly remembered I had stepped on it just before I found Cliff. Apparently, I've forgooten all about it and I didn't even realized it's still in my grip after the whole dragging-Cliff-like-a-sack-of-potatoes incident.

"Hahah! Funny how this girl looks just like Cliff!"

Ann's outburst clicked in my mind like a lightbulb was turned on above my head. Without a second notice, I scrambled out of my seat and hurried out of the inn. I could faintly hear Ann calling behind me, but it's an especially important matter now. This picture is Cliff's!

I bumped onto Doug returning to the inn, but I maneuvered around and passed him, running wildly against the harsh wind that I can barely even hear Doug yelling at me to get back to the inn.

"Open the door, please!" I slammed a fist at the locked entrance of the clinic. Elli stood there guarding the way the moment the door was opened, though, "I'm sorry, Claire. No one's allowed to enter right now. You see, the doctor is--"

"I know, I know! But this is really important! I need to speak to Cliff just for a minute! Please!" I didn't mean to yell that loudly in such a quiet place, but I'm still outside the door, and the wind is unforgiving to just simply let my voice flow smoothly and clearly.

"Claire, please..." I saw no sign from Elli's eyes that she would let me through the door, so I hesitantly maneuvered my way around her and forced myself inside the clinic. The nurse was caught offguard by this and screamed my name in surprise, "Claire!"

I dashed my way to the Doctor's office and made a sharp turn to the only bed there. Like I imagined, I saw Doctor at the side of the bed with Cliff on it, a sort of breathing mask securing the lad's lower face and leaving only his eyes uncovered.

What made me dramatically pause my steps however, is the view of Doctor unbuttoning Cliff's shirt. Well, of course, for medical purposes, but still, the images in my head just screams yaoi. ...This is so wrong in so many methods...

"Claire! You're not supposed to be here." Said the seme doc. Cliff is so an uke from his personality to begin with, but then again with that punk look...

"Claire!"

"Huh? Yeah?" Doctor's yell woke me up from that untimely daydream. Yes, this is one of my many flaws, and also the perfect reason that I'm not a Mary-Sue.

"What...are you doing here?" The dark-haired doctor sighed, releasing Cliff's shirt to turn and face me fully. His ever-ready sidekick, Elli, reappears behind me, "Claire, please, Cliff needs some sleep, you don't--"

And by unknown force of stupidity, I found myself literally lunging towards Doctor, clamped my hands on his (surprisingly broad) shoulders, spins myself around so he's inbetween me and Elli, and by sheer luck, Doctor seemed to lost his balance as he tottered to the back a bit and fell, right on the nurse.

Of course, this calls for a celebration, because I know they're going to pause and stare at each other's eyes for quite enough time for me to handle my own problem.

"Cliff..!" I turned to the unconscious lad...but well, not before getting distracted by his half-opened shirt that revealed his chest a bit, '_Wow, he's packed..._' But I quickly slapped myself to focus on my mission.

"Cliff! Cliff, wake up. Open you eyes, please!" I bring out the crumpled piece of picture and shove it in front of his eyes. "Is this picture yours?"

He laid motionless there, not even flinching. This pisses me off.

"WAKE UP, DAMMIT! I have a very important question to ask you!" And with a mighty hit on his head(since I can't slap his face with that mask on), I expected him to at least twitch, like a normal guy in a very cliched story would, but nope. Nothing.

It turns out my attempts are feeble, and Doctor's starting to get up too.

"Aaah! Cliff, please, LOOK!" I opened one of his eyelids wide, with the difficulty of wearing mittens, that is. That made him shuffled his face a bit, and hope was restored within me.

"..Clarice..?"

Said hope shattered with that single word bubbled out of his mouth. "I'm Claire! No RICE!"

Cliff's half-awakened self didn't even turn to look at me, instead he's staring directly at the picture I hold up for him in front of his face. His eyes are only half-opened, and he looked like he could slip his consciousness any second.

"..Mom..."

That was Cliff's last word before his eyes closes completely again. Before I had a chance to even open my mouth, a strong grip had pulled me away from Cliff. It's Doctor, and by the look on his face, I wouldn't dare to fight him back. ...He IS the seme after all.

"What on earth are you thinking, Claire?" Doctor thundered, bursting my yaoi thought bubble with a pop. It took me a while to notice that he's actually angry...at me.

"I was...uh..."

"You could've HARM Cliff! What in the world is wrong with you, Claire...? Do you want the poor man to--"

"Doctor!" Elli cuts him off. Now I know why Doctor kept such a stoic mask on his face, his expression is understandably frightful when he's mad. I was forever grateful that Elli's here right now, she seems to be the only one that's able to keep the doctor in check.

Doctor fell silent, his face contorted back to its usual straight state. He looked at me for a slight moment, then turns around to walk off back to his patient.

"I wasn't playing around, you know?" I could hear my voice trying to stand up for me. "I was trying to understand what's going on with him.."

Doctor paused his steps, and without looking at me, replied coldly, "That is supposed to be my job." He then walks back to bed, attending Cliff like nothing ever happened.

~~~

I just stayed silently there at the entrance outside of the clinic, leaning onto the closed door like a lost cat. I didn't mean to make the doctor angry like that...and poor Elli... Every time I set my head onto something, I always forget the feelings of others, just to rush in my way for my own cause...

_I'm so selfish..._

"No...I'm not fully selfish. At least..." Bringing up the crumpled picture from my grip, I stare at the two women there. ...They must be Cliff's family. His mom and...Clarice, huh?

Through the exceptionally cold winter and the crazy wind, I walked towards the inn and entered the building without any spoken words. I can hear Doug calling me from the counter, but I'm too moody for this.

Quick footsteps echoed inside the inn as I hurried upstairs, the picture visible in my grip, and entered the second door I see. If I don't have a chance to give Cliff back his picture, then I better leave it in his room or something for when he gets back.

The door opened with a slight creak, and a strange smell entered my nose the moment I stepped inside the room. It smelled...manly. '_Wtf, manly?_' I didn't expect a bachelor's room to be like this...er, well, two bachelors sharing a room...okay, maybe three bachelors during summer, but still. It's incredibly TIDY. Thanks to Ann, I figure.

There's a slight tinge of metal smell combined with the sweet scent of grapes. It's seriously a weird odour, I swear. It's been a while since I entered this room, but last time, both Gray and Cliff were here, because I got lost in the inn for the first time and I had troubles finding the bathroom.

'_What an embarrassing piece of crap I was..._'

I looked over at the three beds. _...Great, which one was Cliff's?_ I was thinking to slip the picture under his pillow or something. But then again, maybe it's better if I just put it on a table like a normal person would do for once.

In that instance, my thoughts flew off out of my head. Since when I was ever normal since I came here, anyway? I'm clumsy, I'm painfully jolly that I could easily annoy people, I'm stubborn and too big-headed to listen to people, I refuse to be a decent woman and resolves things with force and apathy. _Wow, I AM a walking piece of crap..._

My face is blank as I stared dully into nothingness. Trudging my way towards a random bed, I found myself collapsing on it without any sign of life whatsoever. My eyes are open, staring idly at the opened window and watch the snowflakes against the frosted windowpane. My cheek felt so warm against the bed, and then I bring up the picture in front of my face.

My blank stare ended up towards the Cliff look-a-like. The girl's hair is as long as Cliff's, only she let it loose, and the eyebrows is so similar to the traveler.

"...Clarice. What happened to you guys...?"

Slowly, my eyes are starting to feel heavy, and I drifted off to sleep unknowingly...on a random man's bed.

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_(A/N: ...Oh dear. XD I was planning to make this Cliff's moment, but THIS happens. ...God, sorry Cliff-fans, I'll make up for it later. But, it's possible though, on my first run playing the game, during the thanksgiving festival in winter, I was planning to give my chocolate to Cliff, but he freakin' FAINTED. -_- So its his loss Gray got it. _ R&R! More comments makes me write WAY faster, so pretty please? :D With miso soup on top? =D ..Oh yeah, who's bed do you think Claire slept on? XD)_


	4. 4:00PM to 5:30PM

_(A/N: OMG, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS! Honestly, I'm SO surprised and immensely excited to read your comments! 8D YAY~! I promise, I'll try to squeeze in as much humor as I can in this chappie just for you guys! Ooh, and cookie for MarianFontz for the correct guess of the random bed's owner. LOL :D Enjoy~! Oh and I change the rating to T, specifically because of this chappie..since its Gray's moment. XD)_

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**CHAPTER 4: 4:00PM - 5:30PM**

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"What the?"

Loud clanging of metal against wood shook me up with a start. I pushed myself to sit up almost instantly, groggily looking around and trying to clear my blurry visions to see where exactly am I.

That sleep was refreshing... Whoever that is who disrupts my peace shall be sliced, oh no wait, _bonked_. Slicing is Gray's thing.

When my sight is restored to see every little detail in front of my eyes perfectly again, I had a sudden mental wish that my brain is able to take a snapshot of this image to be forever drilled in my memory whenever I need to blackmail a certain blacksmith.

"Oh my...Goddess..."

I can't help but to let out that last word as if I'm...entranced. Of course I can't help it, Gray's there, apparently shirtless, and is sitting on the floor (on such an alluring position, I have to admit) all sparkly and lustrous (yes, he literally is), as shocked and astonished as I am. Well, maybe more.

"CLAIRE! What the HELL are you DOING HERE? ..O-ON MY BED!"

"W-why are you SHIRTLESS and trying to seduce me over there?"

"This is MY ROOM! ..A-and who in the RIGHT MIND would try to seduce YOU?"

"I FELL ASLEEP! Wait, EXCUSE ME?"

Good thing the door's already closed, or our yells might attract some unwanted attention from downstairs...and if we have Ann suddenly showing up at the door precisely at this moment is NOT good. At ALL.

The table that toppled over beside him with the pieces of ores and minerals decorating the floor in a twinkling mess is purposing that Gray had knocked onto the table and fell over in...that position.

The ores helped him gain that glistening effect on his face and bare body. _Drat, if this is his attempt on making me ogle him, it's working perfectly._

"Dammit, can't you fell asleep on some OTHER bed?" But of course Gray's always the one to pop my little daydream bubble. _Hah, well two can play that game..._

"Are you trying to RAPE ME?"

Gray's jaw is wide like never before. If I have a bowling ball, I could aim right inside it and highly likely could score a point.

"What...w-what the damn hell does THAT supposed to mean?" A tinge of red on his face is suggesting he very well knows exactly what I mean. Well, not exactly, but shockingly close.

I gaped at him. His face...turned PINK. And this is GRAY. Gray NEVER turns pink. Heck, even in the color spectrum its improbable. ...Now I seriously wish I have photographic memory. Printer included.

The other part of my inner subconscious, the sane part, is suggesting me that this is enough joking around. Gray doesn't seem to be functioning with the unknown images processing in his brain now, so I took the initiation to humbly continue the eternal battle as the hammer towards the sickle. Perverted thoughts aside, that is.

"Uh...Gray, I uh...advice you to...get your shirt on. You'll catch a cold...if you stay that way, y'know...?"

Since when am I ever awkward around this blacksmith? ...Well, since he's revealing me what's under those baggy outfit of his.

"O-Oh! Er...right." And for once we're in the same opinion. ...Okay, I admit, this is probably the first time I wish he would oppose me...

He rushed across the room towards the door, and collected his shirt that he had apparently tossed on the floor. Odd, if his shirt's off and he has no intention of raping me (which by the way is frighteningly possible with that angst image of his), then what the heck happened?

As the blacksmith slipped on his working jacket, he spun around to meet my eyes, "Well? The hell are you on my bed?"

_You could have ask it a bit more nicely, jerk._ "What, am I not welcomed on your bed?" Damn, I must've hanged out with Karen too much to make up such a stupid line as a retort. But ah well, it made Gray darted his eyes away from me, since his hat's no where no where near his head to hide those eyes. _Take THAT, you fickle sickle!_

"If you don't have any business here, just get out."

_I am so used to the rudeness, I didn't even noticed it._ "At least tell me why you're all shirtless. Hahah, don't tell me you've got a secret affair and making out with the floor! Ooooh, Mary isn't gonna like this..!"

"I swear, Claire, if you're not a freaking girl, I would've pound you out of your sorry misery. EVERY damn day."

"Hahah, thank you for your honest confession. I hate you too." I smiled at him, before shifting myself off the bed and stretching a bit. And while I was busy, Gray decided to roll his eyes. Now, to counter-attack.

"Hey, you know how Manna would react if I told her we're in a room toge-"

"You WOULDN'T dare..." That fast retort plus that deathly tone proposes that Gray's aware of my capabilities...of simply being a girl.

"Oh goodie, I can blackmail you~!"

Gray slapped his large palm on his face, a perfect facepalm moment I have to admit, clearly annoyed, but cornered. "Just...what the hell do you want, dammit!"

"Ah-ah. Nicer."

He cornered his blue eyes in pure irritation. And within clenched teeth, muttered "Claire, what can I do for you." His tone is blank, he doesn't even put much emphasis on that question.

"Well, you still haven't told me what happened." According to Mary, Gray's a shy sweet man who just needs a listening ear once in a while, and though I don't have the faintest agreement of the gibberish of her words, I kept reminding myself that Gray isn't some sort of devil sent from the deepest level of hell. I had a hard time doing that for the last three seasons, apparently.

Gray looked slightly surprised, maybe for the fact that it's that simple. But knowing me, he kept his guard up, in case I did another sneak-attack. Man, I love tongue wars with Gray...

"Nothing. I had a bad day with Gramps, so I left early for the mines to kill some rocks."

"...Kill some rocks?" I raised a brow.

Gray ignored. "I was still pissed off, so when I came here, I didn't even noticed you're there. So I put the minerals here on that table to change my clothes and that's when I saw you."

"Ooooohh..." I mused, nodding as I listened. It all makes sense now. Good thing he didn't reached his pants yet before noticing me. As much as I like him being shirtless, I don't want him to get embarrassed all his life. ...Yes, I can be humane, sometimes.

"Are you waiting for Cliff or something?"

His question caught me off-guard. "Huh?"

"That's the reason you're here, right? For Cliff." He asked me that so casually as if he viewed that his existence never mattered to me. I was tempted to answer a _'Nope, I was on YOUR bed, idiot'_ to tease him more, but then again, he suffered enough today.

"Cliff got sent to the clinic, Gray. Didn't Ann tell you?"

Gray's eyes traveled upwards, as if he's wondering something, or searching for the answer scribbled on the ceiling. Maybe his hearing blocked all sound waves from entering when he's in one of those foul moods of his. "No, she didn't. What happened?"

_Awww, Gray actually CARES! This is so cute._ "He fainted. At the square. Oh, and he left this." I hold up the picture that was on my grip all along, "Can you give it to him?"

The blacksmith approached me just to take that photo and scrutinize it, his blue eyes wondering around the two figures in the picture. When he stood so close to me, I can actually smell those all too familiar mine sent. Winter mine, to be precise.

Actually, for his birthday present, besides inviting him to dine in my house, I told him the whereabouts of the winter mine on the little island at the lake. Gray looked surprised of the given information, and sets off to get some rare minerals from there.

Funny how he lived here for years, yet he knows zip of the winter mine.

"He told me once his sister ran away."

That didn't enter my brain as fast as Gray said it, so it took quite a while for my usual "Huh?" to be said.

"His mother died from an illness, if my memory serves."

Then it slowly dawns on me that Gray's talking about his roommate. "...Oh. ...OH. Oh...Goddess, when did that happened?"

The redhead shrugged his shoulders. I sighed in response. "Well, give it to him, would'cha? I'm kinda late for- HOLY, its 5 ALREADY?" The outburst was too sudden for Gray. He literally jumped back in pure astonishment.

"Oh MAN, and I haven't even decided who I'm gonna give this chocolate to! Argh!"

"...That is so like you." Came the annoying reply, and I sort of missed that strange pause he did before he said anything. Instead, I stick out my tongue at him and he rolled his eyes, "Oh, VERY mature, Claire. Very mature." He did a little clap for me too._ That damn blacksmith..._

"I would so slap you right now to prove how painfully mature I really am!"

Gray snickered, "Oh yeah? Can you even reach my face? Even if you're on your little tippy-toes, I can really feel how _painfully_ soft and fluffy it is with those things on."

I tore my glare away from that annoying man to my perfectly-made mittens. Pissing me off is one thing, but making fun of Aiden's wool, Ellen's work and Doctor's gift is way out of line. Slowly, those mittens are balling up into small fists, which...kind of looked like small fluffy clouds now if you ask me.

Unfortunately, Gray shared the same thought. "See that? It's for caressing, not abusing."

"Argh...we'll continue this war tomorrow!" I shake a fist at him and promptly stomped my way out of the room, but before going downstairs, I popped my head back at the door just to declare, "You may have won the battle, but the war AIN'T OVER!"

"I'm looking forward to end it, commander puffballs."

"AAAAHH!" As tempting as it is to lunge right at the blacksmith and pin him on the floor while banging his head continuously against it, I rushed downstairs and trying my best to not pull all my hair out in frustration. My yell gained attention from the father-daughter duo downstairs, but they didn't say a word. Probably because they've seen Gray went upstairs moments ago.

As the double-doors of the inn was slammed close, Ann is the first one to break the silence.

"Uhm...Dad...?"

"I'll call Gotz tomorrow for anything they broke upstairs..."

The winter snow probably cooled me while I'm on my way to my farm, and I seriously need some cooling. My face is all red now probably, but my stomps slowly cease into a normal pace since the snow is absorbing the angry tapping sound I wanted to hear, so I better just walk normally, getting pissed off is draining my energy.

Everybody must have finished work by now, and all the girls here probably have long completed their task of the day for the festival. Gritting my teeth, I realized the anger hasn't quite escaped me; with getting embarrassed by Rick, then seeing Cliff unconscious without knowing the hell is wrong with him, getting yelled at by Doctor, and just now, loosing a battle with Gray. This is a bad, bad day. Damn, and Kai's not even here, so I can't squeeze him in! Gray's the finishing blow though, so I'm focusing all my anger towards him and him only.

With all that adrenaline pumping in my blood, I paused my steps, swings my head up and yelled to the heavens till my lungs feel all useless, "DAMN YOU, YOU STUPID BLACKSMIIIIIITH!"

"Oh ho ho, well now..."

That chuckling voice startled me from my moment. I turned to look, and see Saibara just getting finished locking his workshop beside me. My face went pale at the unusually quick realization of how that yell could be received by someone other than Gray.

"No, no! Don't get me wrong, I wasn't yelling about you, sir!" _...Sir...?_

The old man chuckled again, this time more amused. "That is the exact same spot Gray stood, during the time he yelled the exact same thing." The elderly man laughed heartily now, the one with gusto and without reservation.

I raised a brow. Gray's been yelling at the heavens so idiotically, like this thing I'm doing, before? Wait, and Saibara's not even bothered by it? After the thought of Gray left, I found myself staring at the old man laughing in front of me at the irony. Slowly, I started to realize that the laugh is reminding me of something...

So _this_ must be the laugh Ellen has been telling me about.

I unconsciously smiled, "You know, Ellen loves that. That laugh...I think that's the one."

Saibara paused, turning his attention to me with slight surprise. Though, it's hard to tell with that bushy eyebrows of his and the darkening snow shadowing my view. The old blacksmith sighed at the mentioning of Ellen's name, but still with a smile on his face.

"You're like Gray a lot," I found my tongue forming that sentence on its own, "It doesn't hurt to visit Ellen once in a while, you know? She said she misses that laugh."

The old man just stood there in silence, looking at me with such a wispy look in his eyes, as if trying to reminisce something. Amazingly, that small smile is still there.

The cold breeze played with my long locks a bit, resulting a few strands of blond hair escaping its place from behind my ear and danced wildly in front of my face. Annoyed, I pulled them all back behind my ear and tries to hold it in place as the catabatic wind continue on its quest to piss me off.

"...Thank you." A gruff reply could be heard in between the harsh air. I looked up to the old man, to see his eyes focused away, but still strong with that smile, "I might...consider that."

"You should," I tried to encouraged him, "Because I'm sure Ellen would like it."

Saibara coughed to clear his throat, probably starting to wake up now that he's seeming a little out of character and starting to walk around me to go to the inn while took the chance to say something when he's right beside me, "Gray's been makin' jeweleries since you two started talking."

And he walked off. I spun around to face him, eyes wide in confusion. _What is this old man trying to say? Like hell I care whatever he makes, that's his problem. _"What do you mean?" I yelled to get my voice through the belting wind.

Normally, I wouldn't even consider to give a second thought if the topic's about Gray, but this is Saibara. The old man Gray hates the most, and he's ancient, for Goddess's sake, there must be a sacred wise-of-age reason for him to be giving me such an unorthodox clue.

Saibara simply turned his head over his shoulder and replied, "He's terrible at it! But he kept wanting to make it."

I was stunned silent. My blond hair started to go wild again with the wind, but I was chained there to the ground, staring at the disappearing form of an old blacksmith. When he escapes my view, my eyes traveled downwards the same moment I lifted my hands to see the mittens Doctor gave.

"...What is it with the guys in this town..?"

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_(A/N: Oh, GOD, I totally love Saibara's sudden pop-in. I fully support Saibara x Ellen, I swear. XD This chappie's supposed to be longer, but I decided to cut it in half 'cause the next chappie's kinda revolve around all the 5 guys -yes, Kai included- altogether, so I can't mesh it up since it's Gray's moment now, so...heh. ANYWAYS, REVIEW~! Please, and thank you so much, you guys made me happy by just reading! =D)_


	5. 5:30PM to 6:00PM

_(A/N: Hmm...I was just reading in one of the HM communities, and I just found out that my type of story is actually...not allowed? Because it is...interactive? o.o It's interactive, yes, but it's just to vote on who Claire's chocolate will be owned, and according to the responses, I have a twist to make everyone happy. So I thank all of my reviewers, with ALL my heart, this is all for you guys. Kinda feel awesome to write a forbidden story...LOL. Anyways, this is just a short chappie to summarize all the 5 bachelors on one go. XD)_

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**CHAPTER 5: 5:30PM - 6:00PM**

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**"...What is it with the guys in this town..?"

My cheeks started to gain a pinkish tint as I begin to recall the moments when I met the 5 bachelors in Mineral Town. Each of them held a particular memory in my mind, and somehow, one type of livestock in my farm is the link to one of the memories that leads to the bachelor...strangely.

The chickens reminded me of Rick a LOT. Rick was the first, of course.

Well, that's mainly because I stumbled onto Popuri while trying to tame Max for the first time, and the puppy got her screaming how cute he is. The little demon (as quoted by Gray this very morning) warms up to Popuri WAY much faster than to me, so the pink-haired dognapped my puppy. At the time, I don't even care, but then Rick came along with Max in his hands and told me, "You know what pet dogs are good at? Protecting chickens from wild dogs."

I laughed that time when he said it, grossly misinterpreting him as joking, until a real wild dog came vandalizing the door of my chicken coop, scratching its claws onto it. And I haven't even bought chickens yet! It traumatized me as hell, and I came running and crying to the Poultry Farm. I forgot the petty details, but Rick rescued my empty chicken coop by shooing the mutt off, and he offered me a discount for my first chicken...so that the chicken coop won't be empty the next time he rescues it. He made me laugh for the first time in Mineral Town too.

I have to admit, I also owe him for training the chicken I bought from him to be nice. ...Or training me to not be afraid of the chicken, more so. Plus, he has a family and a whole chicken community to take care of, I'm just surprised that he even has time to take care of me sometimes.

Rick is officially my first best friend here because of that.

Then came Gray. Believe it or not, Frey my horse, somehow met the blacksmith before, so automatically because of that, and their names, my steed reminded me of Gray.

It's kind of funny if I think about it now, on how I met Gray, because at that time, we're fighting for Mary's attention. The first time I stepped into the library, both the lovebirds are there, but both at the opposite ends of the room. Mary greeted me first, and somehow, we're able to just took off to an endless branch of discussion, without any awkward pauses in between too. It surprises me, since I barely even know her at the time, so I must have been quite shy and unenviable, even. That's when Gray came to ask Mary about this book he's holding.

Funny thing is, Mary doesn't even seem to hear him as she's so engrossed in explaining something to me. This annoys Gray, and when he finally succeed in gaining the librarian's attention, Mary only perks up seeing him standing there and introduced me to him. Then went back chatting with me. That pisses Gray off even more, and he literally slammed the book on her counter before stomping off.

Mary's pencil bounced off the table by the impact and hit me right on the eye. Out of pure and half-blind rage, I grabbed the book he just slammed there and tossed it right back at him, hitting him square on the...no, not the head, the butt. Yes, Gray had lost his dignity when the sharp end of the book hits his rear end, and he yelped too. That's why he had placed me in his blacklist and began to make my farm life a living hell, so of course, I had to return the gesture.

Thus began the infinite battles of the hammer and the sickle.

After that, Cliff came in the list. My cow, Nessa, often reminds me of him.

The first experience of when I meet up with the lad is rather embarrassing, but brought him and the two guys I stated before a little closer. What's funny is it involved Nessa, my newly brought cow that time. I was trying to push her to my farm from Yodel's, but I had difficulty trying to even make her budge. May saw my pain, so she hurried off to the church to ask Stu for help.

On that particular day, it's Wednesday, so instead of dragging a little boy as my probable hero, she brought Cliff. A very bewildered Cliff, that is. He was literally dragged by little May too, but what amazed me even till now, is he helped me, without even introducing himself first too. We both pushed Nessa together with May cheering behind all the way till we reached the front of the Poultry Farm and that's when we decided to take a break. Rick spotted us, with the huge spotted black and white animal in front of his farm, and upon seeing me filled with sweat, asks if he could lend a hand.

So then all three of us pushed the lazy cow under the striking sun, and then collapsed on the bricked walkway, right in front of Saibara's workshop. I still remember the little 'wtf-yell' Gray outburst the moment he stepped out of the shop to see a huge animal in the way, with three weary people all laying down and breathing like they just gave birth. Gray only offered his help because his roommate happens to be in the birthing party, so with all of our strength combined, we finally pushed Nessa to my barn.

After that, we collapsed altogether in front of the barn, and I happened to be beside Cliff that time. He was facing me, and I was facing him, so before things get awkward, I chipped in a "Hi", so he replied a tired "Hey". Rick has to go back to work and Gray has to get back to being lazy, and they both left after I thanked them. And that leaves Cliff and me alone, so I invited him in my house to offer him water, but he's too shy and left. Though, not before asking for my name first.

And that's when Cliff made a friend with the new farmer, thanks to the cow.

Aiden, my sheep, or probably her wool, is the reason I see Doctor Trent in my mind whenever I brush her. Doctor's story was rather perverted in a way, but not in purpose...I think.

It started at the church, when May and Stu decided to play a prank on me while waiting for Carter with his snacks. They somehow managed to put a bug inside my shirt. Generally, I'm not that afraid of bugs, but when it's crawling like crazy on my skin, I can't help but to ran in circles.

I would have stripped my overalls off so its easier to pull the little thing out, but then, idiotically as Gray would say it, I tripped on a tombstone beside the church, and hit my head, hard, on another tombstone. Yay, fun. I think I fainted that time, because the next thing I know, I'm in a very white room, with a white-dressed man beside me. The first sense that came to me is my touch receptors...and I could feel something crawling on my skin.

Doctor did have a quite a shock seeing an awaken patient of his suddenly screaming. Since he's currently trying to wrap a bandage cast around my head, with a nurse I didn't notice on my other side, he quickly pinned me down on the bed after I rip off my overall and half my shirt. Elli was asked to shot a sedative in me since he believed the new girl in town was a loony, but then the nurse screamed upon seeing a beetle crawling on my chest. The little bug quickly hid inside my brassiere in response of Elli's deafening scream.

It was seriously beyond awkward to have a doctor's hand inbetween a strap of undergarment and your skin, just to reach a bug. I am forever grateful that Elli has long left the room at the sight of the beetle. Doctor doesn't seem to be fazed much of what he just did at first, since he just put the bug on a potted plant there before dissappearing outside of the patient room.

It literally took a few hours till I collected enough courage to step out of the room and confront the Doctor again, but then suddenly got begged by the said Doctor to forgive him. It then became apparent it scarred him more than it scarred me...and I thought he was a raper, so I apologize too.

We acknowledged each other ever since, and snickered at the inside joke whenever the word 'bug' came in the discussion.

Finally, there's Max, my loyal dog. Reminded me of Kai way too many times. Kai came last, since he appeared a bit late to my notice.

Even after it reached summer, Max STILL haven't warms up to me, no matter how much I fed him and play with him. I almost gave up on the puppy a little while before spring ends, but then again, where should I dump him? That's when it struck me a little too late that this town's an island, with a beach.

So the moment I bring Max here to belt it off far into the sea, Kai saw me. "Such a nice sight, a lovely puppy with an even lovelier woman." I can't throw the demon off after someone said that, so I set Max down, and the next scene made me cry in the inside. Max happily run towards Kai, acting all cute and circling him like its the most perfect puppy in the world, just what it did to Popuri. But unlike Popuri, the tanned man's reaction wasn't so selfish.

Kai noticed how Max hates me, amazingly, then gave me tips on how to handle little demons like him. I listened to Kai, since I want this puppy grow into a loyal dog for the sake of protecting my livestock, so I took Max out for a walk with me around town every day, and after I'm done with work, I tried to play with him at the beach. Kai's little tip WORKED, and since then, Max likes me...and I started to like the puppy too.

Kai is the BASIS of the farmer-dog relationship Max and I shared now, and I'm forever grateful of that charming traveler. Max likes the beach, Kai likes the beach. Evidently, Max reminds me of Kai...a lot. And I'm very glad of that.

I laughed to myself, having reminisce all those 5 special memories in the single short walk from Saibara's workshop to my farm. Unknowingly, a smile crept up my lips, and I stared out the vast snowy field of my property. When I first came here, I was a paranoid awkward girl that can't even introduce herself properly without messing up, and now, after three seasons, I've grown so well and achieved so much. Those 5 men, are the fundamental individuals that made this farm life of mine WORTHWHILE.

So now, there's a bar of chocolate in my rucksack, to be presented to one of them, and left the other 4 unappreciated. How can this even be fair? And one of them isn't even here during Winter Thanksgiving Festivals, drat it.

I sighed deeply, a large cloud of vapor escaped my mouth as I watched how the sun slowly sets into the horizons. As the darkness looms over Mineral Town, a sudden surge of determination waved over a certain blond farmer, and with her fists clenched into puff-balls, she stomped towards her house door with a pout.

Balance is order in this world for me. If 4 doesn't feel appreciated because of one, then it's better to just give up on the chocolate and eat it myself. Heck with the hierarchy, I like all of them just the same, and if there's something disrupting that balance, I'll eat it ALL UP.

When my hand reached the doorknob, it just paused there, resting on the knob as I stared blankly at the mitten I'm wearing.

If I don't give the chocolate to any of them, then none of them feels appreciated...

"ARGH, why is this festival SO BRUTAL?"

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_(A/N: Oh no, Claire's in a dilemma! LOL XD About Claire's recollection of how they first met. I didn't think of writing this at first honestly, but it IS kinda needed like right now. ...Is it normal when you read the reviews of the first story you ever submitted over and over? XD)_


	6. 6:00PM to 8:00PM

_(A/N: I'm seriously so excited of this fic, thus is why I'm so quick in writing this all of a sudden, and no writers block, so it's all smooth sailing for now, yay! :D I even got inspired to do a quick comic of Claire and the guys because of this story. XD LOL! Anyways, here's chappie 6! Please enjoy! Surprise for you in the middle. =D)_

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**CHAPTER 6: 6:00PM - 8:00PM**

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"ARGH, why is this festival SO BRUTAL?"

I can hear Max barking from inside my house at the unnecessary yell I just cried. I was thinking too much on who to give, and who to not give, and it's giving me a headache. Closing my eyes tight and sighing deeply, I ignored the winter gale stinging my skin while turning around to lean on my door.

Max is whimpering on the other side of the door, and I rolled my eyes. "Shush Max, I'm in a crisis here!" The day is darkening and I found myself stumbling for a conclusion.

Instinctively, my head spun towards the exit of my property. But my eyes are focused of something other than the snow-encrusted road, I'm staring at the mailbox. The mailbox I've long forgotten to even touch since winter came.

But not today. Today I have protective mittens on.

Mentally chirping to the Doctor a thank you, I fearlessly force open the frostbitten metal. I ended up falling over on the snow as I successfully pulled my mailbox open, and suddenly a lone letter was blown off right over my eyes.

As quick as a flash, I bumbled over to reach for the flying letter, and clamped it in between my palms with a satisfying smirk.

Max barked happily as I shuffled some snow off of myself at the opened front door, and as a response to this overly excited dog, I waved up the letter to him, "Come here, boy! Can you guess who this is from?"

I crouched down on the floor, holding up the letter in front of me when my dog rushed over to sniff it. It didn't even take more than 5 seconds for Max to start hopping and barking more happily than before.

I know this trait. He could only be this hyper when...

"It's from KAI?"

Slamming close the door and throwing off my boots, I hurried over to sit on my bed with Max hopping beside me to cuddle in my warmth. After pulling off the mittens and set it on my nightstand, the letter was ripped open messily, but unfolded carefully since it's a bit soggy from being in the mailbox for too long.

**_Hey hey, Claire!_**

**_ How are you doing over there? Looking good as always, I hope. How's my little Maxie? You better take good care of my favorite puppy! Puppies aren't made to be thrown off to the sea, just so you know, Claire. _**

I rolled my eyes and glanced at Max. "Max has grown into a stupendously large dog, just so YOU know, Kai." Max growls at me for that, and I stuck out my tongue at him in return.

**_I know the fall season brings quite a lot of forest fortune for you, but I can't deny I'm kind of worried for you when winter comes. Nothing's growing, and all you have to depend on for constant income are the eggs your chickens laid. Sheesh, remind me to thank Rick for taking care of two of my favorite ladies with his army of chickens. Cliff wrote to me your cow's pregnant, so I doubt you won't be getting any money from her for a while._**

I blinked. Hold on, Cliff wrote to Kai? And out of all the things he can write, the guy wrote about my pregnant cow?_ ...Wow, Cliff really needs to do something exciting for once._

**_You gotta live like a chipmunk, y'know? Store some food from the fall season to get you by through the winter. Hibernate, Claire! I want you to look as fat as you can before winter comes! But loose the extra weight before summer, I want to see you hot and smokin' when I come back, babe._**

Again with the eye-rolling. Sure, he's a charmer, but I bet he used the exact same line with Popuri on her letter.

**_Well, clearly, I'm worrying for you here. I can at least depend on Rick for taking care of my sweet Popuri, but you, you're living all alone, Claire. I mean, it's a miracle how you can manage even HALF of your field. Honestly saying, I'm impressed you can cope up with this life. You are so damn independent, and you're still strong to challenge nature season after season. That makes you SO amazing, Claire. I'm pretty sure the whole townsfolk is aware of this by now._**

I gulped. Surely, THIS possibly cannot appear in Popuri's letter. Kai's doing a pretty good job in charming me, with just a letter. Whether he's just being charming, or simply being honest, I can never tell.

**_ On a side-note, I can always trust on Gray to keep an eye on you, since you two are in SUCH good terms with each other. And Cliff's been telling me all about your life, since you won't stop blabbing about it to the poor guy. Oh, and check this out: I heard from May, who heard from Stu, who heard from his cute sister Elli, who said the Doctor stores away YOUR medical files specially in his easily-accessed drawer, because you kept getting yourself hurt! Goddess, Claire, you're so clumsy sometimes! And you know, Rick and I shares only ONE common subject to talk about without us trying to kill each other, and that's you, since we're both worried about YOU. ALL of us are worried about you, Claire. So would you do all of us a favor and PLEASE take care of yourself?_**

A hand is slapped over my lips, holding up sobs as tears had unknowingly leaked from both my eyes. I'm...weeping? My hand that's holding the letter was shivering, and I could feel a lick from Max on my cheek, so I wiped my face with my sleeve before delivering a small smile towards the dog beside me.

Even Max is worried. Kai wasn't lying after all...

So now the fact is clear for me to see, this makes me feel more miserable. It's the Winter Thanksgiving Festival, a celebration for the women of the town to express their gratitude to the men by giving them chocolate, and I have only one bar in my rucksack to give to 5 amazing guys. _Argh, here comes the headache... I better finish this letter before it grows into a migraine._

**_ Well, I guess that's all I needed to write to you. In fact, I feel much better after writing this. I once again heard from May, who heard from Stu, who heard from Elli, who heard from the Doctor in town, saying that you're too thick-headed to listen to others when they try to advice you things, but you completely casted off that thick skull of yours when reading things. I believe Doc, so I hope what I'm writing here seeped onto your brain or something._**

I laughed, despite my glassy eyes. Doctor Trent sure knows the ways to get into my head, but he leaked it to the wrong person. ...Despite that, I'm glad. Immensely.

**_Later, Claire! Don't hurt yourself. I'll see you next summer!_**

**_P/S: I clipped with this letter something that I'd like you to do. Hear me out, I just found this in the middle of my travels, and I can never perfect it, no matter how much I tried to. So can you try making this? 'Cause I know you suck in planting things and animals just naturally hate you, but I know you're one hell of a baker._**

**_From yours truly, Kai~_**

I blinked, the hell he knows that? My eyes cornered murderously at an imaginary Cliff standing beside my tv, and growled darkly at him. Still, I flipped over that letter to see yet, another piece of paper, but this is not an ordinary piece of paper.

"What's this...a recipe? 2 cups of milk, 5 eggs, a teaspoon of sugar, one bar of chocolate, one and a half cup of water, 3 cubes of butter..."

I paused. Slowly, I re-read one of the ingredients.

"One bar of chocolate."

My eyebrows creased, as I darted my attention straight towards the top-center of the paper. _What recipe is this?_ "Chocolate Cake."

My mouth hung open, and my eyes easily widened into a pre-stage of exhilaration. Without any warning, I screamed in excitement, hopping on my bed while hugging a confused Max tightly as if I just figured out one of the secrets of the universe.

I solved it! Kai solved it! "I'll make a Chocolate CAKE!"

With Kai's recipe secured in my hand and a bar of chocolate in the other, I rushed towards the kitchen and slam open the fridge to take out the needed ingredients. Sure the festival didn't mention anything about chocolate cake, but it's still chocolate. And I'm still grateful of them, so does that count?

Kai's right about me being pathetic at farming, but I'm learning to be a good farmer, and I'm actually doing progress. So what happens if I'm already good in baking, and I'm progressing? Total ego-boost.

I whipped up the batter in less than 10 minutes, battling with time as I try to follow the chicken-scratch handwriting of a recipe. Max stood innocently beside me, barking once in a while to gain my attention...in vain.

After unwrapping the chocolate from its aluminium foil, I stared at the dark brown substance on my table, with a crushing stone in my grip. I don't have any other device that can crush this, so I need to use the things that I already have. Stones, being the most convenient choice. Of course, I cleaned the rock already before I started hammering it with all my womanly might.

Ann's right though, I'm more of a hammer person. Gray can take the sickle.

So now with the small pieces of chocolate, I scooped half of them up and pour it on the batter, smiling as I did so. The other half, I put it in my pot for boiling it into chocolate cream. After mixing the batter up, it turns brownish, as expected, so I quickly pour the mixture in a makeshift cake pan to get that cake shape, hopefully, before tossing it into the oven.

I sighed as I wiped off some sweat from my forehead, and now giving Max some attention to lick the spoon. I lick the pot. It tasted like cookie dough, chocolate cookie dough that is, but I'm just glad it still tasted like chocolate.

While waiting for the cake to bake, I took a quick shower and change to new clothes. Still my work clothes, but at least it's cleaner, since this is a special night. I also found an old camera from the mess that is my cupboard, thanks to Max for initially messing it, and by Goddess, I owe this dog...again. How does he kept doing these accidental things that happened to save me in my current situation?

I need the camera, after much thought.

After taking out the cake from the oven, a wave of relief washed over me since the smell it emitted is beyong appetizing, because that means I don't have to ruin the cake by doing the emergency tasting test. Half of myself really wanted to, though.

So with the cream splattered on the cake and carefully spreaded around every inch of it, I smiled in satisfaction at how simply delightful it looks. I grabbed the camera, ready to take a shot of the cake, and with whisper of "Thanks, Kai," the picture was taken.

The camera was the old-school type, the one that spits out the picture right after the shot was taken. I can't remember where I got it from, though... Either the mayor or Basil.

Well, whatever, I wrote a hurried, "Here you go, Kai~! Happy Thanksgiving!" at the back of the picture, stuff it in my bagpack, then grabbed a knife. With my tongue at the side of my lips, I cut the cake to half vertically, then to 4 equal pieces horizontally.

I took my time licking the chocolate-stained knife as I made my way to the shelf to take out all the aluminium foil of the chocolates I've bought and collected all this time. Using those foil, and the one that I just unwrap earlier, I carefully wrap the 4 slices of chocolate cake, with the stain of chocolate over my lips from the knife-licking.

After tossing all 4 pieces in my bagpack, I put on my mittens, then quickly wear my boots. Max hurried over to me, but not barking, strangely. When I turned to look at the dog, I could see there's a piece of red ribbon there dangling from his mouth, the one that he unties from his own neck.

"What's up, Max? What's this for, boy?"

Max sets the ribbon beside me, then barks happily towards me. I blinked, pulling the ribbon up from the floor, and the dog barked even more eagerly. "Oh! You want to give it to me?" Max just nudged its head towards me a couple of times.

I grinned, then ruffle Max on the head. "Aw, thanks, boy! I'll return to you when I'm back, okay?" With a nod, I use that red ribbon to tie around my hair, hopefully it'll give me a different look tonight, since I need myself to look special, just for tonight.

Standing up, I secured my rucksack behind me, and settled my hand on the doorknob. With a glance to my faithful dog, I nodded at him.

"Wish me luck, Max!"

And I rushed outside the winter gale with a determined smile. There's 5 men that I need to deliver my chocolate to, so I need all the luck I can get.

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_(A/N: HAH! How's that for a twist? XD I was playing the thought on who would give the recipe to her, and at first I thought of Anna. But then I had a better idea, and that up there comes out. XD W00T FOR KAI~! Yes, it's his special chappie now actually. 8D I'm quite proud of it, despite how lame I wrote it out, but I really hope the idea works. :P Please review, I can write much MUCH faster by the boost, seriously! And THANK YOU for reading!)_


	7. 8:00PM to 8:30PM

_(A/N: You guys...have no idea...how I'm so into this fic that I even decided to draw Claire with her horde of men according to the seasons. XD With Rick on spring, with Kai on summer, with Cliff on autumn and with Gray on winter. Trent is available anytime of the season in the clinic whenever she needs him. XDDD LOL! Anyway, Rick's ending in this chappie! =D Hope you enjoy~! :D)_

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**CHAPTER 7: 8:00PM - 8:30PM**

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My blond locks danced wildly with the crazy current. At night, the temperature drops drastically, and it stung every inch of my body like I didn't have a single thread on me. Some of my limbs occasionally undergoes random involuntary spasms thanks to the wind, and it made me want to turn back and wear two or three layers of overalls over the one I'm already wearing.

Still, I'm grateful the Poultry Farm isn't that far, so the moment I see Popuri opening the door after I knocked, I launched an immediate hug towards her. I don't care who opens the door, I just want some warmth before my entire skeletal system froze.

Popuri shrieked by the way, both by the sudden chill and the assumption of me being a serial rapist. Good thing she recognized the long blonde hair. Rick fell off the stairs by his sister's scream, only Lillia seems to give the appropriate response, "Oh dear, Claire!"

The next minute, I was placed in front of their fireplace, on the couch, with Popuri and Lillia each beside me. I'm glad by the extra body heat, but my fingers are officially frostbitten by the bluish tinge at the tips of my nails.

"Are you crazy? Can't you see the even crazier weather outside?" Rick outburst, bringing a warm cup of something from their kitchen. I reached out my hands, having no care whatever beverage he made, as long as it's warming my palms.

"Claire, you're still wearing your mittens, take those off," I can hear Popuri pausing after she said that, the continued with a puzzled look, "Wait, Claire has mittens?"

My teeth doesn't allow me to respond due to the chattering sound it made. Lillia was nice enough to help me though, "Now, now, give Claire a moment to warm herself up first," she ordered, but then suddenly shrieked in surprise.

Everyone jumped, Rick even fell on his butt. Apparently her screaming is shriller and louder than her daughter's.

The pink-haired woman then slowly reached her hand up on top of her head, dabbing her fingers against her pink hair carefully. All three of us stared at her with wide eyes, probably asking the same question in our heads, but Popuri's quick enough to say it out loud, "Mama? What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry, something fell on me, it seems." She brings her fingers to her nose to take a sniff, and after a moment, slightly licked a finger. "It's vinegar."

Everyone simultaneously glanced upwards, and sure enough, something is dripping off from the second floor of the house. Popuri slapped a hand on her lips, "Oh! My vinegar!"

"You put vinegar upstairs?" Rick stared incredulously at his sister while dusting himself after standing up.

"No! I mean, yes! Kai said that if you put an egg in a bowl filled with vinegar, the egg shell will get soft! So I tried that, and I put the bowl on my bed."

"It must have fallen off," Lillia concluded with a small smile, before painstakingly trying to stand from the couch. I instinctively assist her to her feet, followed by Popuri who held her mother on the other arm.

"Let's take a look, dear, and bring the old cloth from the kitchen." Lillia looked towards her daughter, and Popuri sprinted off to find the said meterial. The gentle woman then turned to the two of us, "Rick, you look after Claire."

Popuri bounded off the kitchen after that was said, then leads her mother upstairs slowly and carefully. Both Rick and me just stood silently, watching their every move as if ready to dash towards Lillia if she falls, but they both made it up safely.

Rick heaved out a relieving sigh automatically, and I turned to him with a smile. Not many men heave out a sigh of relief after their family had safely gone up the stairs. "You're kind of a family guy, huh Rick?"

"Not kind of, I AM a family guy."

"Oh. So then when Popuri comes home one day marrying Kai, you're gonna love him just like you love your mom and your sister right now?"

"WHAT? No way! Claire, don't you even joke about that!"

I burst out laughing, which is a good thing because now I know the muscles around my face are no longer frozen. Though, the rest of my body still won't function and Rick's aware of how still I'm standing.

"Uhm...I think you should sit down now."

"I...can't move."

I literally can't. My whole muscle feels tight, as if there's a boulder was placed on my head. My grip on the cup is not only secure, but very stiff till veins could be seen at the back of my palm.

"Help me...Rick..." The tightness is starting to spread on my jaw, but then, the chicken farmer did something unthinkable.

He leans over me, spread his arms on each of my side and surprisingly, delivering a warm hug to me. My mouth hanged open and my eyes shot wide over his shoulder. The only thing that stops him from being completely close to me is the cup on my hands in between us, but his height makes up for it as he sort of slant his upper body a bit to complete the hug.

His embrace did it though, the warmth of his body heat is just what I need to loosen the tension and stress of my limbs. My shoulders slowly falls in a relaxed manner instead of hunching up, and I exhale through my mouth mellowly against his shoulder.

Rick released me way too suddenly when I was slowly regaining back my strength, and he clamped his hands straight to his sides with a stricken expression. His mouth is open, trying to make his tongue move, but all that escaped was a couple of 'Uhh's and 'Umm's.

I sighed with a smile, and took the initiation to help the poor guy. "You know, I was just about to say 'Please hug me' a while earlier."

Rick blinked at me thrice, opening and closing his mouth like a cute little goldfish (which, by the way, fits him with the colour of his hair), and I reached out my hand to pat him on the shoulder._ I would've patted him on the head if he wasn't so tall, though._..

"Relax, you did good. It helped me a lot, thanks."

The poor man rubs the nape of his neck as he looked away with that blush I've been waiting for and after a few fake coughs, Rick stated in such diffidence, "It...kind of overwhelms me...actually. Sorry..."

"Are you saying that you enjoyed that?"

"No! Well, yes... I mean, no! You're the only one getting squeezed there, so of course not! Plus, your bagpack's on the way, and the cup ruined it."

I burst out a laugh, "You're Popuri's brother, alright."

We exchange laughter before he lead me to the couch, and after we're both settled near the fireplace, I sipped on my drink. Then gagged.

"Blargh, what is this?"

Rick seemed anxious, "Eggnog."

_I should've known..._

"You know what, take the eggnog, I have something better." I shoved him the cup, then swung my rucksack from my back to the front of my chest and hurriedly opens it. Rick's stare was focused onto my hands though.

"Hey, where'd you get those mittens?"

"Oh, Aiden."

"Who?"

"My sheep. It's her wool. Ellen knit it. Doctor gave it."

There was a pause from Rick as if trying to absorb all that in, "Doctor...you mean Doctor Trent?"

"Yeah. Surprising, huh? Oh, here it is," I pulled out a piece of the chocolate cake I just baked, astonished that it's still warm since I just pulled it out of the oven after all. With a smile, I turned to face Rick fully and handed the cake over.

"Is...is that chocolate..?" He was tricked by the foil, but Rick is absolutely astonished by my sudden present and unconsciously bent down to put the eggnog on the floor before taking the cake from my hands.

"Uh, chocolate CAKE, that is. Sorry I'm out of chocolates...heheh. Happy Thanksgiving, Rick." The heat from the fire certainly warms me up as I could smile wide without any frozen constraint on my cheeks.

The chicken farmer stares at the foil he slightly ripped to take a look of the cake, and his mouth hung open. I was just about to laugh at him due to the overemotional response but there's a certain glitter I can see in his eyes, so my laugh ceased into quiet chuckles, then to a smile.

The next scene caught me in surprise, but I'm already used to it to gape now. He had scooted nearer and squeeze me in his embrace, but this hug is different, because he rested his chin on my shoulder, and the squeeze is rather tight than before.

"Thanks...Claire. You don't know how much this really means to me."

My eyes begins to get a little glassy as I bring up a hand and patted behind him gently. There's definitely something different in this hug, and Rick really needs it. At the thought of that, I slipped my other arm out to return the embrace and complete the hug.

"It's just a piece of cake, Rick. I don't think it's enough to show you how eternally grateful I am to have met you, and better yet, I even get the chance to befriend you. I mean, come on, how awesome is that?"

My voice sounded broken in the end, so Rick pulled himself away, with his palms resting on my shoulders, and stares at me in shock from behind his glasses, "You're not...crying... Are you, Claire?"

"Pssh! Of course not," I countered with a feeble punch to him and took the chance to laugh and close my eyes. _Goddess, this is embarrassing..._

Rick smiled in return, then graciously tipped over the cup he had placed on the floor and got the eggnog staining the carpet. "Agghhh!" He half-yelled, then rushed to the kitchen. It takes only 3 seconds for him to run back outside the kitchen and sprinted all the way up the stairs.

I can hear from downstairs of their loud conversation.

"Popuri, I need the old cloth now!"

There's a gasp from the pink-haired maiden, "Is that a chocolate?"

"It's chocolate CAKE. Claire just gave it to me."

"What? No WAY! That's more tasty than chocolate ITSELF! Wow, she's a genius!"

I burst out laughing, then zips up my bag before standing up from the couch. After warming myself by the fire for the last time, I headed to the base of the stairs and called up to them, "Hey, I have to get going now! I'll see you guys later!"

The footsteps from upstairs just get that much quicker at the news, so when I reached the front door, I can hear Popuri screaming from the top of the stairs, "Wait, Claire! WAIT!"

I spun around to see both the siblings at the stairs rushing down. Popuri was the first to reach me, and in reflex, she reached for something on my head, "Your ribbon's all messy." So the pink-haired tightens it around my head, it feels so tight that I don't think it's going to get blown off or even get in a disorderly twist by the wind outside.

"Thanks for the chocolate. And by the way, that's a good look at you. You look much more feminine."

I grinned with a glare, but before I could retort, Popuri did so for me.

"Rick's lying. He thinks you look hot, not 'good'."

Okay, my glare quickly transforms into a weirded-out gaze towards the chicken farmer. It took Rick a lot of attempt to deliver his point with his stuttering, "N-no! That's not what I think! You don't look hot...I mean! Of course you do, but no! N-not in a negative way...! As in...like I said, you look feminine, but not hot, in a bad way! I mean, that is..!"

He ended with a sigh and a slap to the face. After a much needed inhale, Rick lets go of his awkwardness, and just tries to not make me burst out in giggles. "What I'm trying to say is... You look beautiful, Claire." _Yep, he definitely stops the giggling process to even escape my throat._

Safe to say, both of us shared the same reddish tinge on our faces, and upon seeing this, Popuri made it a lot worst, "So! When will you two get married?"

"WHAT?"

"HUH?"

The simultaneous outburst must have looked more appealing for Popuri as she broke into a fit of laughter rather than cringe from the murderous look on our faces.

"Popuri, don't even joke like that! Claire doesn't wish to get married yet."

"Oh yeah? But you do!"

Popuri's clever counter definitely deepens the shade on Rick's face, and the chicken farmer backs down in defeat. I took a step forward to try and defend him, and my right for 'marriage'. _What is it with today that makes women kept bringing up this topic for me?_

"Now now, slow down, Popuri. I've only been here for almost a year only, and I know your brother just as long. I obviously don't know him that well to marry him. Plus, I'm pretty sure Rick already has someone in his heart."

Popuri responds with an "Oooooh~!" which is positive to me, but negative to Rick. Heck, I don't think I managed to helped him, but only made the situation even worst for the chicken farmer.

"Well! I'll retreat for now. I'll see you guys tomorrow!"

So then I escaped the Poultry Farm with a grin plastered on my face, even through the crazy wind. _I'll make it up to you later, Rick, because for now, I'm battling with time._ Next stop; the inn.

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_(A/N: God, I love Popuri. XD This is like the most fluff I've wrote so far...but that's mainly because I've never written enough. XP LOL! How'd you like it, by the way? I seriously think Rick is just adorable, my little goldfish! XD Reviews are highly appreciated, positive comments are loved and critical feedbacks are needed to improve the fic. So please, even a short 'w00t!' will do, as long as I know who's been reading my fic. =D And drive me to write at super speed. LOL! Thank you so much for reading! Next up is Gray's ending! :D Bwahahaha!)_


	8. 8:30PM to 9:30PM

_(A/N: I am so incredibly sorry for the delay, a lot's been going on. And..I went out of town for a bit, not to mention the numerous attempts for me to try writing after getting myself addicted to flash games... Yesh, I'm guilty, my apologies! And uh...what is Gray's hair color, if I may ask? o.o I'm settling for a redhead in this fanfic, so please forgive me if I'm mistaken! x_x Either way, I need to thank all of my lovely reviewers, love you guys SO MUCH. :D Gray's ending, everyone! ;P Hope you enjoy~!)_

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**CHAPTER 8: 8:30PM - 9:30PM**

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"Claire? CLAIRE!"

Ann's shrill screaming bounded off the walls of the entire inn the moment I collapsed yet again at the entrance of the auberge. My fingers are frostbitten when I'm strolling towards the Poultry Farm under the drop dead horrible weather, so imagine what I look like after walking all the way through the snow for half an hour just to reach the inn.

A sudden warmth engulfed me, and though I have no idea what exactly that is, I'm grateful of it. Well, that is, until a different yet familiar voice burst my frozen eardrum, rivaling Ann's earlier holler.

"What the hell HAPPENED?"

I don't need my eyes to see who it is and where it came from, my ears are perceptive enough to even send mental images to my brain before my eyes could even see it. That voice belongs to Gray, and he probably yelled that from upstairs, right outside his room door.

As I dare crack open my eyes, I winced slightly at the stinging pain of my eyelids. My vision seems so blurry at first, but after a few blinks and mental adjustments, I can finally see Ann there kneeling near me, wrapping me with a very thick comforter, it seems.

Where and how did she obtained that in such a short amount of time is beyond my recognition, but then again, I always love Ann and her ability to pull out the most random of contraptions, and it always benefits either her or me. Ann is just awesome like that.

"A...A-Ann..." I croaked, but the redhead simply shushed me and rolls me inside that comforter of hers like making sushi. Then, with the help of Doug, sat me up and pour something inside my lips. I didn't realized what exactly that passed my throat, but by the immense warmth suddenly bursting and churning inside my stomach, I dare guess it's a strong drink.

"WOW!" I loose open the prison of the comforter, like a sort of fireworks that just erupted inside me. All that fire traveled all the way to my veins and muscles on every limb, pumping adrenaline back in my blood. And let me tell you, it feels GOOD.

Doug backed away, then stroke his chin while looking back at the bottle he just fed me with. "Alright, I think this booze is perfect for winter."

"Dad! Stop treating customers like lab rats!"

And while they're both busy countering each other, I'm busy trying to test if any of my limbs are working right, so I open and retract each of my limbs slowly. Most of them thankfully are, except my fingers.

"Nice dance, puffballs."

My eyebrows already settled into a creasing glare as I spun my head to the figure climbing down the stairs. Though, instead of burning holes through his body with my dagger glare, my eyebrows ended up arching high in mild surprise.

_'That...cannot possibly be Gray...'_

Though showing a lot less skin than the last time I met him, I have to admit, his choice of clothes now does indeed fits him. The blacksmith is not only hatless now, he's wearing a dark sleeveless shirt that amazingly shows off his lean yet muscular physique. I gaped.

_'Well, that's a nice choice for nightclothes... Flaming hair certainly helps..'_ I never doubt the color-combination of red and black to be such a symbolic look on Gray. But then I caught that he's wearing a pair of khaki shorts, barely hiding his knees.

"Nice leg-hairs," I retorted, finding that comeback both appropriate and spiteful at the same time. He shot me a glare as a response, and seeing that, I humbly smirked.

The appearance of Ann suddenly popping up in front of my eyes surprises the life out of me, but her intentions are good, so I can't complain. "Now Claire, please don't pick up a fight with him, it's a really busy night, and I don't have time to stop you two from blowing up another wall."

I raised a brow at this, and looked around. Despite the weather, many men of the townsfolk (plus Karen) are here, intoxicating themselves. I blinked, _'No wonder Ann had that bedding in ready...'_ I can see Basil there, and Duke, and Karen at the counter with Doug returning his place there, and finally Saibara at the far edge, bringing his glass up as he acknowledgd my presence.

I waved back at him, but then again, I was still '_dancing_' to keep my limbs in constant flexibility before it froze all over again, like what happened at the Poultry Farm. Still, that thing Doug fed me really brings some confidence in me that my limbs won't get frozen any time soon.

"No worries. I came with a peace offering for him."

Ann rested her hands on her hips, staring at me hard as if searching for the answer. But then, Doug called her, so she quickly scrambled off to collect the comforter and rushes her way to the kitchen. Gray had reached the base of the stairs at the time, and as Ann passed both of us, she delivered a glare to us that distinctively said, "Break even ONE chair, and I'll break your leg."

"...Is she threatening us that she'll break our neck if we bring down the wall?" Gray questioned, but his eyes are focused to the ponytailed waitress rushing off passing Duke there.

"Close enough, Gray. Close enough." I followed his gaze, and watches as Ann disappears through the kitchen door. Gray took Ann's leave as his cue, though.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, puffballs."

Almost as if automatic, I punched him by the arm, growing rather annoyed by that nickname already. I really did took quite some strength on it, but Gray doesn't seem to even budge by that blow. He turned to me with a brow arched, "I told you, that thing you're wearing aren't made for violence."

I clenched my jaws tight, trying my best to constrain myself from knocking that damn head of his, "I promised Ann I wouldn't get into a fight with you, that's why."

"Heh, is that so? I thought you already lost the fight."

Now my fists are clenching up. Goddess, this man has the ability to piss me off any time of the day... Even after working hours!

"Commander puffballs."

"AGH! YOU!" I exploded, a finger pointing straight at his nose in reflex. Thankfully, I didn't gain much attention from the others...or probably because they had already expected this, and paid no mind. My finger instinctively swooshed its way from his nose to an empty table nearby, "SIT. NOW!"

"...You're mistaking me for your dog."

"I said SIT!"

Gray seethed in annoyance, but made his way to the table anyway. I cornered my eyes to glare at him from behind, and muttered, "You're as demonic as Max was anyway..."

As he sat, I could see from the corner of my eyes that Saibara's laughing heartily at the scene. The wrinkling on my face lessens at the sight and before I knew it, I was smiling. Figured a man as old as him would need some laughs in his life. Maybe I could grant him some tonight using his grandson. _'Let the mission begin!'_

"I heard that," was the first sentence he said as I took a seat across him. My first response was to give him a grin, "I'm glad you did."

"What do you want, Claire?" By the tone of his voice, I can guess that if I crack one more annoying joke, he might just literally choke me.

"For starters..." I began, bringing my elbows on the table and fiddling with my fingers, "You look...good...tonight."

Gray arched a red brow, studying me skeptically with a deep frown. "Seriously Claire, if it's long, you better just catch me tomorrow when I'm in a decent mood."

_'Since when is your mood ever decent?'_ My mind echoes, just nearly escaping my lips, but Ann's reminder was firmly placed as a filterer between my thoughts and my tongue. "No, no! Stay! It has to be today!"

My tone slipped, and it came out louder than I expected. Warily, I looked around, and indeed some pairs of eyes are already onto us. Gray clicked his tongue, aware of the unnecessary attention we're getting without even scanning around. "Fine, then."

He stood up from his chair, shoves his hands in his shorts-pockets, then stalked away from the table, leaving me dumbfounded and confused. I just followed him with my eyes, totally oblivious of what just happened, until Gray suddenly looked back towards me with that signature frown of his and said, "What are you sitting there for? Come on."

_'Ohh, so he wants me to FOLLOW him...'_ I mentally state the obvious, and internally jumped in excitement that Gray didn't shooed me off. I didn't realized that I literally jumped and skipped towards him.

Gray rolled his eyes before dragging himself up the stairs, all sulky and grumpy like he always is. And I was right behind him, skipping up the stairs happily and full of mirth. We're COMPLETE opposites. The men downstairs just stared at us, stunned by how contradicting the two beings on the stairs are and at the same time perplexed what on earth is Gray doing, leading a lady in his room.

When the door upstairs was slammed closed, Duke spoke up, "Ei, is it okay leaving those two in a room alone like that?"

"Gray may be short-tempered, but he's a trustworthy boy. No need to be worried," Saibara hollered out, raising his glass as he spoke.

Doug laughed, "The last time we leave those two alone, they broke down a wall!"

"Claire is a humble woman, she can take care of herself," Basil joined in.

"You men are worrying too much!" Karen piped in after she chugged down another glass, "Claire has the hammer!" There was a short pause, then the whole bar roared with laughter, nodding in approval with each other, and upon hearing the commotion, Ann rushes outside from the kitchen, "What did I missed?"

Gray sat on the bed with a slump, and without even pointing out to me on where I should sit, he barked, "Hurry up, you're wasting my time."

_'Patience, Claire. Patience...'_ I chanted mentally, making my way to the bed beside his and sat down on it stiffly. Gray just tapped his fingers on his leg, waiting impatiently for me to say something. _'Right, this is getting more awkward by the moment...'_

"Spit it out," the blacksmith muttered from clenched teeth.

"W-wow Gray, did you ever notice that your room smells like molten metal-"

"Goddamn! For Goddess's sake, Claire! Quit burning my time!"

"...And why are YOU in a foul mood for, this isn't easy for me to say, you know?"

"Yeah, and words that irked me are the ONLY thing that's easy for you to say, right?"

"What the hell... Look in a mirror, Gray! You NEVER said something nice to me since we first met! At least I TRIED to be polite to you!" I could feel my throat vibrating by that yell, and by the look on Gray's face, he's not backing down either.

"Polite? POLITE? Since when? You're PRISSY, but NEVER POLITE!"

My mouth hung open in pure outrage, "Excuse ME, I greeted you every damn morning! And I got my ears bleeding LISTENING to your complaints! Grandpa this, disappointment that! I mean, could you just SHUT UP and say hi to me without treating me like some...some outlet for you to let out your frustration?"

I was already on my feet, glaring down at the blacksmith. At this, Gray pushed himself up the bed also, glowering as he advanced towards me. By the time he stood right in front of me, towering over me with that frightening look on his face, I inwardly winced. _'Who am I kidding, he's a freaking blacksmith! He has iron grip, he's freakishly tall, a sickle is his past life...he could KILL me.'_

"What the hell...are you doing here, Claire?" His voice was deadly, and I gasped slightly. It's like he's questioning my very existence... _'Does he hate me that much?'_ I've never heard of him speaking like that before, and before I knew it, there's a sting in my eye...

Clinching my jaws tight, I looked down from his glare and pushed him away from me with all my might. Gray jerked to the back slightly, and then falls on his bed, cussing through clenched teeth. I couldn't hear him though, because I was busy screaming at him.

"Whatever, Gray! Just...WHATEVER! You're not worth it.." And I stomped my way away from the set of beds, but my legs felt heavy somewhat that I tripped sideways towards the small table with a potted plant there, though I managed to catch myself before I stumbled down.

Just when I was about to walk off from there, Gray blocked my way, effectively cornering me with him in front of me, along with a bed and a small table with a vase at each of my sides. I can't escape.

"Not worth it, huh?" He growled, suddenly taking hold of my wrists tightly, then shook my gloved-hands in front of my face, "So, what IS? Are THESE worthy? Who gave it to you, huh? The doctor? Well is the DOCTOR worth it?"

He was yelling at me, my wrists are tightly in his grasp, "That's none...of your BUSINESS!" I was struggling so hard to break free, my voice was broken in the middle of screaming that. My struggle resulted the table to fidget, and finally fell over. The vase broke to pieces. And as I feebly continued to hit him with constrained punches, something escaped my eyes.

Tears. Fresh warm tears...

The fire in Gray's eyes shuts off immediately, and his blue eyes stared at me in wide shock. After a moment to regain back his senses, the blacksmith instantly releases my wrists. I, on the other hand, dropped my head down, my arms loose, and eventually, fell on the bed, quietly trying to restrain my sobs.

Both said nothing, only the sound of my annoying convulsive gasps of air could be heard faintly against the mattress. I recovered way quicker than Gray, as I forced myself to stop weeping, wiped my face with my mittens, and accidentally pulled the mitten off my right hand as I tried to dried my eyes.

Gray's eyes flickered, seeming to notice something before I did, and quickly grabbed a hold of my ungloved hand, though this time, surprisingly gentle. I would've pulled my hand away from him, but then my eyes caught sight of what he's staring at.

There's an unmistakably deep red tinge around my wrist that didn't fit with the rest of my pale skin tone. I watched as Gray turned my hand around to examine the hand print made by his own palm against my skin, horrified by what he's seeing.

Suddenly, the blacksmith backed away with a swift shift, alarmed. He seemed to be muttering something, over and over, and I just stared at him with wide eyes when my brain interpreted his words with the movement of his lips, "..I hurt you..."

He kept backing away, and my sharp gaze caught sight of the vase pieces right behind him. "Gray!" It happened way too fast for my eyes to catch, all that was set on my mind, is Gray's about to get hurt, and I don't know how, but I managed to take a strong grasp of the very hand that harmed me, and pulled him to safety.

Next thing we both realized, I'm on the bed, with Gray on top. Though, this time, he didn't weight me down a bit, because his palms are securely planted on the bed at each of my sides, balancing himself up without even touching me. He hurt me just seconds ago, and he didn't want to repeat the same mistake again.

I smiled, despite the tears welling up my eyes again.

Another glass-breaking noise could be heard echoing in the room, but this time, it originated at the door, and there stood Ann. Her eyes wide, and her hand supporting an imaginary tray. The broken pot and teacups scattered in front of her. Her jaw dropped wide, witnessing a friend of hers being trapped on the bed with a man blocking her.

"DAAAAAADD!" Ann rushes downstairs, screaming frantically, "GRAY RAPED CLAIRE!"

The look on Gray's face at that very moment is BEYOND I could ever imagine. Hell with photographic memory, this moment is all that counts. The blacksmith was just about to push himself off to make way for me, but knowing this, I stopped him. My arms are already locked behind his neck, and Gray's face contorted in pure astonishment.

Before his brain can even register what's happening, I pulled myself up against him, and my lips brushed against his, fleetly. After that I let him go, and the blacksmith immediately stood up, looking away to hide his flushing face. I watched him in amusement, he deserved that peck after what he realized. He hurt me so much before, and just now, it finally came to his notice. And what's more...he protected me, for once in my lifetime.

"Anyway, Gray..." I started, unzipping my rucksack, "Happy Thanksgiving Day."

I nudged the cake against his arm. Watching him slowly turning his head towards me, then darting his eyes back and forth between me and the cake, and finally accepting my peace treaty, was in all honesty, extremely cute.

_'Gray is cute. **GRAY**...is **CUTE**. Why does those two words existing together makes perfect sense to me now?'_

"And really, Gray, you DO look good tonight. I'm being honest."

My correctly chosen words was then repaid by the red blush visible on the blacksmith's cheeks. We traded smiles for a while, finally coming into terms with each other after 3 and a half seasons of war, and I got to say, I'm happy about this.

"GRAY! I TRUSTED you, BOY! What have you DONE?"  
"I know I should stop you two when I had the chance.. Claire, are you alright?"  
"You filthy cunning beast, Gray! What in the world has Claire done to you for you to abuse her trust and respect?"  
"What in heavens name is WRONG with you? This is no way FORGIVABLE!"

A horde of half-drunken men fought their way to enter the door, and poor Gray was fumbling to form words that seemed to get stuck in a twist of his tongue.

"Claire, did he TOUCH you?" Ann squeezed in, reaching over to pull me from the alleged 'raper'. I just calmly laughed at her antics, and seeing this, the others stopped yelling.

"Nope. Gray actually...protected me."

My simple statement stuns everyone, and they kept looking back from Gray to me. Their eyes still held a glint of disbelief, so I shamelessly continued, "I'm the one touching him, no worries."

Everyone gaped...until a laughter erupted from the very back of the horde of men. They all turned to look, and there they saw Saibara, laughing cordially at the scene. This time, Gray joined the gaping. Not one of them has seen Saibara laughing this much...only Ellen knows.

I laughed with him, happy to be helping an old man to catch up with his lost laughs, and sharing his laughter with the others, to make it more enjoyable. Soon, the whole room joined in the laughter, and as I turned around, I can see Gray snickering too.

Saibara's eyes twinkled at me, and I nodded at him in return.

Mission accomplished.

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_(A/N: HAH! Omg, I very much enjoyed writing Gray's ending! =D Honestly! I was so worried I can't pull off writing a rather angsty fic, but I gotta say, I'm relieved of how the whole fight turns out, and how I managed to settle it into an unspoken truce is a miracle. x_x How do you like it? :3 And after this~! Doctor Trent! Stay tune! =D Random pop quiz: Do you think Gray is jealous of the Doctor with the mittens and all? XD LOL)_


	9. 9:30PM to 10:00PM

_(A/N: Holy shiznit, I have no idea the previous chapter is such a success, and I am SO glad you all like it! =D I'm just...so happy right now. :3 Since I've never wrote fluff or the likes of it before. x_x So! Let's see if I can whip up something better with Doctor Trent's ending, hmn? I assure you, it's not quite as you expect. :P So let's enjoy the moment, you and me both~! Yes, I have no idea what I'm writing. XD It just came to life as I type, LOL! Okay, shutting my fingers up, ENJOY!)_

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**CHAPTER 9: 9:30PM - 10:00PM**

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Although I'm busy fighting my way through the harsh winds, there's an unmistakably wide smile on my lips. I'm currently running through the path right beside the inn that goes straight to the clinic, grateful to the man that built the walkways here. _'Note to self; gotta drop by a thanks to Gotz some time later...'_

What happened at the inn right before I left was still continuously playing back in my mind, maybe that's the reason why I'm grinning so broadly now.

_"Here," Gray had shoved me something, and my eyes flickered at the sight of Cliff's family photo in my hands. "I have a feeling you're going to the clinic after this..." The blacksmith muttered, looking away and continuing, "I also...think that Cliff deserves...to get his picture delivered. He cain't sleep without it."_

_I took a moment to stare at the picture, then assuredly nodded, "Okay, I'm on it."_

_Gray took a minute to stare at me, which is creepy since I'm no good in eye-to-eye contact much, but his sudden choice of words stunned me, "Are you wearing your dog's leash?"_

_Again, my hand automatically reached for a blow at his arm, "No, stupid. It's a RIBBON. It's MAX'S ribbon." Though, internally, I'm kind of thrilled to be receiving compliments of my new ribbon look by the guys._

_And yet again, he shows no pain. Now it's either his body is made of rocks, or the mittens really did soften each and every of my punches. "Huh. Well, you look good in a leash, anyway."_

_I glared at him, trying to search for any hidden meanings of his statement, but I'm aware the time's ticking, so I passed the chance on counter-attacking him with any slutty comments that could make his face turning color. "I'll get back into battle mode tomorrow, but for now, I have to retreat."_

_"...Be careful."_

_Gray's words of concern somehow got picked up by the rest of the men, and they started to wish me luck and to watch my step endlessly. I'm flattered honestly, but today there's been too many cases with men getting so worked up of my wellbeing...it's like they're seeing me like some sort of fragile, dependent, damsel in distress._

_My face must contorted into something lethal to see them all backing away after that, "Goddammit! Will you people STOP THAT? I'm going to be prefectly FINE."_

_Well, except Doug. "Here ya go!" And he stuffed something inside my bagpack from behind me, "Winter booze all the way!"_

The crazy snow that's currently bombarding down onto me didn't stop my eyes from rolling at the play-backed scene. _'Oh well, look at the bright side. I got a drink for free!'_

The knocks I made on the clinic door isn't as strong as the energy I gave into pounding it. Maybe Gray's right, these mittens aren't made for being brutal. Though I have to admit, Doug's untested drink is still working, I didn't even feel like collapsing on the snow after 10 steps outside.

As I was busy pondering on suggesting the name of the new drink to be 'Miracle Booze', the door creaked open, and there I see a petite nurse peeking from inside at the small crack of the door, before opening it fully with surprise.

"Claire! What are you doing here? It's so late! Come in, come in!" By the tone of Elli's voice, she must have thought that all of my limbs must be frozen by having to walk through the merciless weather all the way from my house.

The nurse pulled me in and settled me on one of the waiting seats there, then scampered off behind her counter towards the cupboards where they kept all the medicines. "Oh dear, do you need Bodigizer or-!"

"Elli, what's going on?" A deep voice hollered out from the top of the stairs followed by the footsteps descending down, and there stands Doctor Trent at the base of the stairs, still in his white coat, to my disappointment. _'Jeez, and I was hoping to see him wearing pajamas...'_

"Well Doctor, Claire just stopped by and you could see by the horrible snow we have outside-"

"What?" The doctor cuts her off, then quickly spun his attention right towards the waiting seats...where I hurriedly stood up and guiltily waved at him. "Claire? What on earth are you doing here at this time of night?"

Unlike Elli, Doctor doesn't seemed to be the least bit concerned that I just walked through the snow outside, instead he just stared at me sharply...almost like he's glaring. _'Oh crap...is he still mad at me?"_

"Um...I came by...t-to ask if...Cliff's..a-alright."

Yep, I'm definitely terrified by this doctor now to make me stutter that much. Plus, he literally did yelled at me today, and his expression that time pretty much gave birth to a whole new set of fear inside me. Yes, SET of fear, there's different levels of it already according to how his eyebrows even move.

The doctor, however, didn't say a word but merely glare holes in me. I literally swallowed my spit, thinking this is not a good idea after all, until Doctor Trent suddenly spoke, "Elli, please go check on Cliff, and give him the medicine I've listed, along with the shot."

Poor Elli was a bit startled by the sudden order, but quickly picked up the pace as she hurried past us both to the patient's room. I did catch a quick glimpse of her face as she passed me by, her face expression's a mixture of worry and confidence...it's almost like she's wishing me luck.

My eyes trailed to the nurse as she disappeared from my sight, much to my dismay. Just looking at Elli kind of gives that rejuvenation feeling, that everything is going to be alright, and by the look Doctor is giving me, I really need that feeling now.

Without a word, the said doctor coolly made his way towards me. My lips instantly opens wide, but apparently, my voice won't come out. Doctor Trent has the ability to psycho me with just one look, either for the better or the worst, that's in his control.

I thought he was going to knock me silly on the head, just like what I did to Cliff, but instead, Doctor pulls up the stethoscope resting around his neck to his ears, and brings the other end of the medical instrument to the top of my chest. After that, he inspected my eyes by pulling my lower eyelid down, then my throat.

"Doc-her, wah are yah do-eh?"

Trent removed the thin wooden stick he used to keep my tongue down while checking up on my throat, then pulls down the hearing plugs of the stethoscope back around his neck. "I'm a doctor, you just walked through THAT to reach here." His thumb was pointing at the back over his shoulder, straight towards a window there.

Before I could even say something, he beats me to it, "You made a stop at the inn, that's a wise choice. But even so, gulping down alcohol at this time of night is foolish, though efficient in keeping your temperature in the safe zone. I advise you to take a while's rest before going home, Claire."

I gaped at him, complete with a dropping jaw. "Whoa, that's just...wow! How did you figure all of that out? That's exactly what happened!" Somehow, it escapes my memory that Doctor Trent is just brilliant that way.

"I'm a doctor," he repeated nervelessly. His answer is so simple that I can't help but to stare up at him in amazement. He didn't gave me much time to say anything as he just spun around to follow Elli, but that's when I suddenly recalled something.

"Hey Doctor, can I ask you something?"

Doctor Trent paused his steps, sighed, then turn his head over his shoulder, almost like preparing himself to face a piece of life's greatest annoyance. "What is it?"

"That...that thing you're wearing," my hands actively played their part in shaping up like the instrument he wears around his neck, "Is it called a stethoscope, or a fetoscope?"

There was a moment of silence from the doctor as I waited for his answer, his face blank for a second, but then his shoulders jerked, the sides of his lips crinkled, and right there before my very eyes stands the emotionless Doctor Trent, laughing. Out loud, I may add. I gaped even wider at how remarkably magnetic he looks right now...

"Ah-hahahah! Goodness, Claire. Are you pregnant?"

My eyes widened even more. "WHAT?"

Doctor laughed even louder at my expression, while I stood there utterly confused and bewildered. "What? What am I missing? And I am NOT pregnant!" _'Goddess, did Ann's outburst back there is really TRUE? Am I pregnant with Gray's CHILD? HOLY SHYTE!'_

Trent forced his laughter to cease down by lightly biting the tip of his right thumb, while his left hand is holding onto his right elbow. I swear, just by the sight of him doing that seriously makes me think he had lived inside a mansion before, since that thing he did made him look so refined and sophisticated somehow.

_'By Goddess, I have never seen such a princely doctor all my life...'_

"Claire, you do know that a stethoscope is for listening to the sounds generated inside the body, right?" Doctor Trent finally stopped chuckling, but his smile's still visible on his flawless face.

I blinked stupidly, "Well, yeah, that's what I thought. But then Karen suddenly said something about fetoscope, and I got confused."

At that information, the doctor began to chuckle relentlessly again, "A fetoscope, Claire, is a medical instrument used to listen for the foetal heartbeat on a pregnant woman's abdomen."

It took me quite a while to swallow all that up, and once I did, my face contorted into one that resembles a very angry Gray, "Oooh, that Karen! She sets me up!" My fists started balling up again, and at this, the Doctor paced his way and stood near me.

"And why did she want to do that?"

"To humiliate myself in front of you, why else!"

The doctor just smiled down at me, "You did quite the opposite, actually."

I looked up, meeting his gaze, and by the mere sight of him smiling, I can't help but to return the gesture and flashes him one of my brightest grin, "I'm just really glad to see you laugh like that, honestly speaking. You should do that more."

"If that's what you want, you should get yourself tricked by Karen often."

I stifled a laughter, never knowing the doctor has a sense of humor. He's so stoic and serious all the time, almost nobody has ever seen him smile before, much less laughing. He's one of those fellows that was overshadowed by his workaholic nature that his real true personality is hidden away almost completely.

This makes me wonder...is he aware of that?

"Doctor, you should smile more, seriously."

He just ran a hand through his jet black hair like it's a common advice others kept telling him, and he's sick of it, "I know I should, but there's just too much work and I have no time to-"

"You have no time to smile?"

Doctor Trent shook his head slightly, but other than that, he said nothing. I took this as my chance to try and wake him up, "You need to meet up with the others often, they did the most silliest things sometimes, and you just can't help but to laugh along with them!"

Despite my enthusiasm, the doctor's response is more than a little cheerless, "I don't have time to go out." With that said, my optimism dropped...drastically. My lips were pressed tightly against each other into a very thin line, and then...I lost myself in rage. Hurriedly, I stepped onto the nearest chair there, my face now growing red.

"Darn it, Trent!" Unknowingly, and shockingly, my 'caressing' fist landed right on top the doctor's skull. I literally bonked his head with one of my 'puffballs'.

Doctor reached a hand up to grab a hold of his poor throbbing head, staring right up at me unbelievably after backing away a feet or two from an enraged blond. His jaw slightly dropped by the sheer retardation of it all, but to my amazement, no voice came out of it. Looks like he wanted me to scold him...

Resting my hands on my hips, I yelled down at him, "Would you PLEASE stop burying your head in some paperwork for once and live your life?" My glare must have looked absolutely horrifying to see Trent taking the smallest step backwards. "You are now living in one of the quaintest towns exist in the world, it's such a shame to see you trapped in your work all day, not enjoying the beach, or socialize, or...laugh! Like you just did! Every Wednesday, you just strut your way to Mother's Hill in the morning ONLY, then right back to this clinic. Why don't you use the rest of that day to walk around and greet the townsfolk, and share your sense of humor?"

I rambled a lot, specifically when I'm extremely pissed off. It's strange, because I never got to finish any of my rambles. Gray cuts me off every time. It feels kind of good to get my points across so completely like this, and doctor's doing a good job in shutting up too, unlike Gray.

Slowly, the red tinge on my face drained, and my eyebrows relaxed slightly.

"I'm sorry that I can never understand a doctor's work, nor the feeling to shoulder so many lives in your hands with balancing Lillia's disease and Jeff's allergies...and my clumsiness."

The wrinkles on my face lessens as I cornered my eyes to the side, "I'm also sorry, for making you so angry earlier...when I hurt Cliff. That was stupid of me."

"Yes, that was stupid of you." Doctor's quick response totally surprised me, but there's no stopping that guilt-grin widening on my face. "Though, I'll take into consideration of your suggestion, Claire."

I blinked, and slowly my grin transformed into a happy smile, my current mood quickly swinging to the its opposite. "Yeah? Really?"

"Of course. I'm not as thick-headed as you."

The sparkles in my eyes flashed off immediately, and a frown is now decorating my lips with a pair of slight annoyed eyes. If Doctor was Gray, I would've countered that eons ago, but this is Trent I'm talking to. The rarely-humorous doctor. I rather be attacked by him than attacking him. ...No dirty thoughts.

So noticing me not defending myself, Doctor Trent smiled up at me, "Though I'm glad I gave you those mittens. My head doesn't hurt at all."

Okay, that is IT.

"RAWR!" Bringing my hands up similar to an attacking cat, I literally hopped off the chair I'm standing on and pounced right onto the doctor. Of course, Trent didn't see that one coming. "Claire! What-"

The cold waxed floor of the clinic emitted an unbearably loud bam right after that. Apparently, it's so loud, the vibration could be felt by the next room...or specifically, the patient room.

"What was that?" A male voice could be heard from there, my head immediately perked up, "Cliff?"

After a moment, Elli appeared to my view, screamed, then balances herself against the wall nearby. "Doctor! C-Claire! What's going on?" By her tone, she seemed alarmed, to my confusion.

But said confusion didn't last long as it slowly came to me that I'm now laying right on top of a very confounded Doctor Trent. He can't even speak considering his face is against...my...

_'Holy twins!'_

"AAAH!" I screamed just as shrilly as Elli and in reflex, pushed myself off the poor still-baffled doctor, with my face as red as his. "I'M SORRY! I'M SO SORRY!" With my hands in a defensive manner, I backed away from him, hits a chair behind me and sat on it. "It was an accident, I swear!"

Despite her lifetime's supply of shock, Elli amazingly managed to rushed towards the doctor and offered to help him. I just watched from the chair as Doctor struggled to stand, his complexion very reddened...and he's sweating?

It didn't take long for poor Trent to suddenly swap a hand on his face, with blood gushing out from behind his palm. I yelled even louder, "Oh my Goddess, he's BLEEDING!"

"What?" The nurse was as freaked out at me, but unlike me, Elli's strong enough to make herself move to do what's required, instead of just sitting and screaming in shock. At the sight of the crimson liquid dripping off the doctor's chin, Elli scrambled off behind her counter to grab a white cloth, then tossed it to me.

"Claire, can you please wipe the blood off? I'll go upstairs to find some ice!"

Then off she goes, her footsteps hurriedly reached the upper level of the clinic. My hands were seriously shivering holding the white cloth in my grip. I'm not used to do stuff when I'm in the middle of a very deep shock like this! _'Can't I just sit here looking stupid and wait for all the distress to pass?'_

A noise distracted me from my thoughts, my eyes immediately darted off to the front in surprise. There knelt Doctor Trent, being left by Elli as his only support to stand up, and a hand trying to hold up gushing blood from his nose. There's his blood spots all over the floor around him, and even a hand-print of it there as he tries to pull himself up.

"...Doctor?" I croaked, and out of pure sympathy, trudged my way from my chair to his side. Yeah, I'm a coward, but that doesn't mean I can't help others.

"Here, just...stay still." I commanded him, surprisingly very firmly, and after tilting his head to face me, just trying my best to wipe the blood stain off his chin and lips, but not particularly...gentle, per se.

"Clai- Claire! Stop it." He grabbed a hold of my wrist while I almost poked inside his nostrils with the cloth.

"Hey, I'm not born with angelic touch, you know?"

"Yes, I now know that, thank you," Doctor pulled the cloth from my hand as he held it up against his nose for a while, waiting for it to stop spurting. This, to Doctor's surprise, brings up a question from me.

"Hey, doesn't a nosebleed usually occur when you feel kind of hot or something? But...today's like the coldest day in winter history, how could you..." My hands does the rest of the talking, imitating the blood spurting out of my nose. Despite how I can be slightly perverted sometimes, I'm still an innocent obtuse most of the day. This...is one of those days.

Doctor shot me the most hilarious wtf-look in the history of pissing off Gray. Even Gray is unable to pull off this look, I dare bet. Without notice, I blurted off the classic cartoonish laugh; I'm laughing my head off and pointing a finger at the doctor. Literally.

Thankfully, before I reached the top of my lungs, Elli arrived with a packet of ice ready in her grip. My laughter immediately ceased to a smile, as I watched Elli do what she does best; nursing. There's still a tinge of worry visible on her face, and I smiled even wider at how cute they both look.

"Oh yeah. Hey Elli, why does Doctor suddenly got a nosebleed when the weather's not even-"

A large palm was secured against my lips to keep my mouth shut and I could only muffled against the skin. Doctor, complete with a pinkish speck on his cheeks, sighed in annoyance.

_'Oh yeah!'_ I tried to muffle that out, but the doctor won't even let his palm off, so I just slinged my bagpack to my side and sets it down on the floor to unzip it.

Right on cue, Cliff's voice echoed in the clinic, "Uhm...if everything's alright out there...I'd like this injection thing out of my skin right now...if it's okay..."

"Oh dear! The syringe!" Elli gasped, now remembering she hasn't pulled off the syringe out. I winced, shooting Elli a bewildered look by just using my eyes, then watched as the nurse sped her way off.

I have a very short attention span, that's why I quickly turned back to my bag and pulled out the piece of cake I just baked, all in its aluminum glory.

"Mmf mpffhffhuf mf~!"

"Excuse me," Doctor pulled his palm off, and blinked at the large bloody hand-print he just pasted on the farmer's face, oblivious to the said farmer.

"I said...Happy Thanksgiving Day~!" And I happily shoved the piece of cake towards the still-blinking doctor. It took him a while, but after acknowledging what day is it today, he gladly took my gift.

"Thank you, Claire." And there's that smile I've been waiting for. Doctor Trent possesses this lovely dreamy smile that I'm sure every girl in this town would melt at the sight of it. I almost did, but that's when Doctor decided to be perceptive.

"This is not chocolate."

My expression dropped unquestionably, "Yes, it is. It's chocolate cake."

"...Now why would you give chocolate cake to me?"

I rolled my eyes, figured that out of all 5 of them, Doctor would be the only one asking why I didn't abide the rules of this festival, "Because I ran out of chocolates."

"But then how could you make chocolate cake if you claim that you're out of chocolates?"

"Dammit, just take the cake and acknowledge my sign of gratefulness, OKAY?"

Doctor just smiled, despite my growing annoyance, and cleverly responded, "See, that's what I felt like when you won't stop bombarding me with unnecessary questions all the time."

I was silenced immediately, now embarrassed, but still trying to defend my right to be myself, "H-hey, it's not my fault you know everything!"

Doctor Trent chuckled, another spectacular sight. If this keeps on, I seriously wish I could trap him inside a glass box of sorts and display him to a random art gallery as God's most beautiful creature ever created. I can make serious money out of it too, no doubt at all.

I licked my lips at the thought, now the idea sounds tempting, but then there's a...metallic taste on my tongue...like a mixture of iron and copper. Or maybe...

"BLOOD! AM I BLEEDING?" I panicked, backing away and fell hard on my butt as I wiped my face with my mittens. The sheer redness on my perfectly white mittens is quite more than enough to make me scream all over again.

"AAAAHH! I'm bleeding and I'm not in pain! What's wrong WITH ME?"

"No, please! Calm down, Claire!" Doctor tried to reason, moving towards me with that now red-patched cloth very near to my face.

"AAAAAAGGHH! NO, NO, NO!"

"Claire, would you PLEASE- WHOA!"

"OW!"

"OOF!"

By the very loud racket, of course Elli would come in the waiting room that very moment, "What on earth is happening here- ...Wh? D-DOCTOR! LEAVE POOR CLAIRE ALONE!"

...Spurt~

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_(A/N: HOLY TWINS, EPIC NOSEBLEED MOMENT! XD ROFL! Omg, I was laughing all the way while writing this, this animated image of it in my head is just too awesome. LOL! This is a gift to MarianFontz, considering she's kind of bummed Doc fell on Elli a few chapters back, and I made this to make up for it. =D Hope it works, my friend! Oh yes, and distressing news, I have to leave to attend my new semester in...a very far away university, without this laptop, so I'm sorry to say that I won't be continuing with this fanfic for a while. But hope is never lost! I can still come back on weekends! Hopefully... :3 Review, if you believe I deserve it! XD LOL! Cliff's ending is up NEXT! :D)_


	10. 10:00PM to 11:00PM

_(A/N: God! FINALLY UPDATED! Because I have my own Notebook now. :D *angels singing hallelujah beyond the heavens* First time opening Mic. Word and I'm off writing my HM fanfic. XD Can't help it, love the game, love the current bachelor ending. :P So here we are, folks! The long looooong awaited Cliff's ending! ..He's my favourite bachelor too. XD)_

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**CHAPTER 10: 10:00PM – 11:00PM**

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This time, I won't stay back on some random chair waiting for Doctor's blood to magically disappear. Nope, after the mess I managed to cook up within only half an hour, I'm determined to at least mop the clinic floor while Elli's busy with treating Cliff, and Doctor at the sideways holding an ice bag.

That's what I'm doing currently, actually.

"Mopping the clinic, yeah~! Mopping all the blood off, woot woot!"

"For heaven's sake, Claire. This is a clinic, and you're mopping blood, this is not a good time to be singing, of all things."

I spun around with the mop, facing a very infuriated Trent holding up the bag of ice against his slightly cerise face. I simply don't feel like apologizing, no matter how pitiful he looked, so after a very long inhale, I sang even louder.

"Ain't my fault, ain't my blood! Yet I'm mopping the floor filled with _your_ blood-flood~!"

Doctor Trent's face malformed into the most hideous-looking glare I have ever seen. Now I strongly blame Doug's alcohol, for making me this loud and hyper.

Moments after that, with the mop being wrestled off from me, I was sent to sit at the corner of the clinic, holding Doctor's bag of ice, silently watching the said doctor with the mop, roughly swabbing the floor with a grunt. It was partly my fault to blow his fuse when things aren't looking up for the poor _(poor) _man...

I need to try and make him feel better, or distract him from his misery. ...That's when Doug's alcohol suddenly entered in my mind.

"OH!" My loud outburst ranged through the quiet air, which startled Doctor and resulting him to drop his beloved mop in sync of my sudden disturbance. Thankfully, he had already finished wiping the floor clean, so he didn't need to pick it back up. Plus, he has Claire to order around to do so.

Said Claire though, was busy ransacking her rucksack, and it took her until Doctor was within 5 meters that the blonde farmer pulled out the very item that was the source of a miracle for her to even survive nature. ...By nature, I mean both the weather and a hot-blooded doctor.

"I present to you...the Miracle Booze!" With such enthusiasm, I announced. My grip tight around the barrel of the newly created wine. I figured that Doctor Trent needs to know of this, since it literally cured me from being a living popsicle. "Doug made it! It's still untested, but I drank it, and it saved me, so now it is! I think you should check it out. Maybe it can be used as a cure."

I handed the wine bottle to the stoic black-haired, and sure enough, he does seem rather intrigued. I grinned broadly, figuring he would forgive me for gallantly granting him a new subject to test on, but instead...

"I'm glad to have you as my lab rat, Claire."

"..WHAT?" '_Oi, c'mon, not again...'_

Doctor didn't seem fazed at all and took my sign of objection as a yes. I sighed in depression, since it's probably the only way for him to literally forgive me, but when I turned to face him, I almost squeaked seeing him staring at me with such intensity...or was it focus?

"Claire, are you wearing a dog's collar?"

_'Damn, not another Gray.'_

My hand flew right onto the ribbon on my blonde hair, insulted. Or since this is the doctor I'm speaking to, maybe that's what he was aiming? "It's a RIBBON, for Goddess's sake! You men are so unperceptive..."

Doctor's clever reply was the least of what I expected him to say though, "No. We're just acting insensitive to tease you."

My mouth flew open for a retort, my tongue trying its best to form something, anything to say, but unfortunately, no words came out. One thought did echo inside my head for the longest time, _'That was...SO TRUE!'_

The black-haired doctor chuckled at how speechless I am, and then added, "It looks cute, Claire. You don't need to pull it off." And with only that said, my hand swung back to my side, and continued to grin ear-to-ear at him. At the sight, the doctor breathed out heavily, "And you women are so fickle sometimes..."

Right after he said that, Elli came out of the patient room, along with a silver tray filled with all of Cliff's medicine on it. She seems like she's about to report something, but her attention was inquisitively drawn towards my gloved hands at the time, so she halted her news for the time being to focus on my mittens instead.

"Claire, hand me your mittens. I'll clean it for you."

That caught me off-guard. Out of all the questions she can ask, she took interest of my mittens? "What? No, that's okay, Elli. It's awfully nice of you to, but I don't want to burden you."

The nurse took a step closer to me, so we're both standing face to face with Trent watching us from the side silently. Elli shook her head meekly and smiled at me, "No, it's truly fine. I have the right bleach to get rid of any blood. Plus, you're much busier than I am."

"Elli, come on, busy as I am, I always have time to do my laundry. I can get rid of the blood like any animal poop that stained my overalls, you know?"

"Oh, I see... But those are woolen gloves, and I understand it's very delicate to simply clean it like you usually would, Claire. Please let me."

"Hahah, Elli, you're too nice sometimes, which is why I won't take advantage of you. I'll manage to figure out how to clean it—"

My words were cut short when Doctor Trent suddenly took a frontal step in between us, one of his eyebrows twitching, "Just...let ME clean it."

Both Elli and I shot him a bewildered look and chorused, "Doctor!"

"It's my gift, it's my fault that it got stained, and that's my blood. I'll clean it."

Elli was stunned silence, and I was left speechless and dumbfounded. In its entirety, Doctor Trent was thoroughly right. While I was still in that dazed state, Trent had pulled the mittens off my hands, and was surprised by what he sees around my wrists.

"Claire."

The red skin marks from my earlier fight with Gray. Doctor didn't say anything else, merely calling out my name, and just studied my eyes with his discriminating gaze. I didn't respond, jolted by the doctor's sudden calling, and blinked at his stare. After he's satisfied of how my eyes somehow responded that no one has done something to me, Trent heaved out a silent sigh before turning around to get back at his office. This wakens Elli to deliver the patient's description she was supposed to do earlier.

"O-oh! Doctor, Cliff refuses to spend the night here," the nurse reported, and then switches her attention to me with her eyes hinting something, along with a certain glint I didn't managed to catch.

I blinked at her, and slowly after a few moments, it dawned on me. "Oh, oh!" Complete with one of my arms raised up high enthusiastically, "I can send him home! Back to the inn! Leave it to me!"

Of course Doctor would rub the bridge of his nose at how typical I sounded, "That's Cliff's choice, Claire. Stop deciding things for others, it's not your place."

"Actually...I would like to take Claire's offer...if it's alright..."

Everyone turned their heads to the opened door of the patient room, and there stood Cliff, with bandage cloth around his head, I noted, thanks to me. Elli smiled, and then swings her attention to Trent, who seems to be so deep in thought that his eyes literally darkens.

"Are you sure, Cliff?" Obviously, the doctor didn't trust me even if his life depended on it, considering he's the only one that drags me to the clinic whenever I fainted out of exhaustion after working with my field too much. I was known too well by the townsfolk to frequently overexert myself. Doctor Trent even took a glance at his watch, noting it's beyond 10pm, and concluded in his head probably that I'm not going to last for another half an hour.

Though, he forgot I took a gulp of Doug's Miracle Booze.

Surprisingly, Cliff didn't answer to the doctor's uncertainty, but rather, responded to my ribbon look, "Wow, Claire, are you wearing a ribbon?"

Not only that Cliff's the first man that ever said it's a ribbon, he's also the first guy that said something about it before he even said hi to me. Unlike the others who commented about it just when I'm about to leave.

"No, it's my dog's collar."

"...You're wearing Max's collar?"

Somehow, Cliff's question made me smile. Maybe it's the fact he remembers Max's name...and the fact that he knows I even own a dog named Max. The traveller's next statement made me smile even wider, "Huh. Well, it looks like a ribbon to me."

Cliff didn't really commented how I look with it, not that I expect it since he's so shy, but just saying those things he said is equal to a compliment, somehow.

"Cliff," Doctor's deep voice almost startled me, and according to how Cliff tries to regain back his posture, it seems like the ponytailed lad was just as surprised.

"Yeah?"

"Are you sure that you can trust Claire to get you home?"

Cliff shot Doctor an odd look initially, blinking his eyes a couple of times to process those set of words in his subconscious, then chuckled, "I think you got that backwards."

Doctor seemed fazed a bit, but Elli quickly steps up in front of the doctor to protect whatever dignity he may have left, "Let me rephrase that question. Cliff, can I trust you to take Claire home?"

The chocolate-haired man just smiled as a response, and delivered a nod to both Trent and Elli. Clueless to how men communicate to each other, I didn't even take notice Doctor approved of Cliff's unspoken question.

"Be careful!"  
"If you throw yourself to anything ever again, Claire, I'll put you in a straitjacket."

And after those two had spoken their goodbyes, both Cliff and I waved off to them as they close the clinic door. The weather, though still can be considered as a wild blizzard, is at least a bit softer than before I entered the clinic.

"Oh!" My sudden outburst almost made Cliff tumbled into the snow, "Hey Cliff, can we take a quick visit to Zack's house? I have to deliver something," I suddenly paused, having remembered the doctor's words about me and my selfishness of others' choices, "If you can bare with the weather, that is."

Cliff blinked once at me and after a moment of silent pondering, twists his way from the path to the inn and stood by me to the other road towards the church with a nod of his head. As we passed the cemetery alongside the church, I noticed Cliff's pace had gotten slightly slower.

"Cliff...?"

That shook Cliff from his daze with a jolt, but he covered whatever that is he's hiding quite well with that sincere smile of his. The traveller has a very distinct set of smiles, I noticed after all this while hanging out with him, and each smile actually shows pretty much all there is to know on what he wanted to say.

Granted that I never had the gift to be so detailed and careful, it took me quite a while to gather up all that focus into each and every crinkle of his grins. This one, which he's currently beaming at me with, is probably saying something close to...

"I'm sorry, Claire. It's...not something that I can speak off that freely."

He suddenly said out. That's exactly my guess. "Yeah, I know. But just to note you, I can listen anytime if you want to talk about something." I looked up at him with a reassuring smile and I'm glad that even through that sudden uneasiness of his mind, he still managed to return a grin to me.

That's Cliff's specialty, after all.

At first, Cliff was an extremely shy boy, almost to the degree that it's unhealthy for him. But through the seasons, thanks to Carter, he eventually opens up to a number of people that hangs around him. His initial personality made me think of him as a very sensitive guy, that's how I became specifically wary of my words when speaking to him before. Even till now, actually. I don't want to push him and force him to spit out whatever I need to know. Embarrassingly, I'm softer to Cliff than the rest of the men in Mineral Town.

The winter gale combined with the breeze from the ocean certainly made Cliff's ponytail and my hair dancing wildly everywhere. Thanks to Popuri who had painfully tighten the ribbon on my hair, my blonde locks isn't ruined that much. The sand even felt stiffer and harder as we walked towards Zack's house, noting that if the once soft beach sand is like this, then the ocean could kill you with its temperature.

"Zack. Zack!" I banged my fist onto the door, and amazingly, now with my mittens gone, my slamming actually sounded decently loud, much to my giddiness. Though, even with my loud banging, nobody opened the door. I didn't even hear footsteps from inside that would open it.

"ZACK!" Now bringing my other fist, I started hammering the door continuously, frighteningly similar to how Fred Flinstone always does. I only paused my yelling and banging when I heard Cliff coughing from beside me. He motioned if he could give a try, so I stepped back.

"..Zack?" Unlike my wild banging, Cliff just politely used his knuckles to knock. Surprisingly, after a moment, the door opens.

_'Wait...that's not Zack.'_

"How can I HELP you?" A bespectacled Chinese man grunted. I recoiled instantly. It's the guy who tricked me into buying his stupid apple on my first week here. "Who's there, Won?" Finally, Zack appeared from behind the yellow-clad, selfish, greedy...thing.

Cliff's elbow hits my arm gently, reminding me it's not the time for my usual mental critic moment. So, I quickly fumbled with my backpack and after a moment, fished out the photograph of the cake I made. I was positively glowing as I handed the picture to Zack, completely ignoring Won beside him, and grinned.

"I can't wait till tomorrow. Can you ship this to Kai? Please?"

Zack took the item handed over to him. My smile grows even wider as Won seems to be loosing interest and went back inside the house. The large bulky man only laughed at how energetic I am even late in the night, and it seems it got rubbed onto him too as he nodded confidently of the task.

"Well, I'll be. I've never seen such a lively young lady all my life. I'll definitely do that first thing in the morning!" His laughter boomed through the night after that. I clapped in glee to even notice Zack's laughter almost broke through my eardrums. Cliff rubbed a finger inside his ear to give a check if his was really busted.

"Ahh! Talk about Kai, there's a delivery for ya, lad!" The shipper, upon noticing Cliff behind me, noted us. He then asked us to wait for a moment as he disappeared inside his home and after a few seconds, appeared at the doorstep with a letter in his hand, "Can't find ya all day, so I thought I'd hold onto it for tomorrow. But since you're already here, might as well take it."

Cliff took the letter humbly from Zack's grip, and both Zack and I didn't miss to see that absolutely thrilling face he tried to hide from our notice. For a guy that wrote about my pregnant cow, it's rather obvious to see Cliff likes a difference of his daily routine occasionally. A letter from a friend, being one.

"Thanks!"

I almost giggled at the sudden outburst of excitement flowing out of his tone unexpectedly. Cliff even bit his lower lip in embarrassment at the sudden surge of happiness overcoming him. Zack only laughed at his antics, and bid his goodbye, "Well, you kids have a safe trip home. Thanks for the barrel of laughs! G'night!"

The moment Zack closed the door is the same moment the ponytailed traveller quickly but carefully tear the letter open. As we walked our way back to the stairs, it suddenly strikes me how completely opposites both Cliff and I are. I literally ripped through my letters till the envelopes didn't even exist, Cliff here just politely tore it that the envelope can be recycled and used again.

I stared at him as he started to unfold the letter. Somehow, this gentle quality of him made him so...admirable.

I didn't even realize I was gazing at him till the lad himself turned his attention to me. One of his hands travelled all the way to the nape of his neck, his eyebrows creasing slightly, his bangs somewhat dancing with the winter wind and his cheeks grows slightly pinkish, "Come on, Claire, don't do that. You're making me feel awkward..."

Amazingly, by that sheer sentence alone, it's enough for me to ball up my fists under my face to constrain a sudden fangirlish shriek almost escaping my throat. Cliff is unbearably adorable by the way he acted just now, and I would honestly scream out how cute he was if it wasn't for the fact that my statement could scare him off. Literally.

"Sorry, sorry," I managed to coughed up, successful in restricting myself, or I would have lunged myself towards him to give him a hug. _'Wait...that's exactly what Doctor warned.'_ I blinked at how creepy the reality of it is, as if Trent could read my mind, or what I'm about to do in the future. If he ended up possessing clairvoyance, then Doctor Trent had long broken the Gary-Stu factor...

We're already at the Town Square when Cliff suddenly broke into this heart-warming laughter that echoes through the area. I can't help the curve crinkling at the sides of my lips. It's especially rare for me to see Cliff truly enjoying himself, and the mere sight of him chuckling is definitely enough for me to sleep peacefully tonight.

He turned to me excitedly as he motions the letter, his chuckles ceasing into a smile, then stated, "Kai is the most humorous man I have ever known."

"I second that."

We exchange smiles before chuckling again. Cliff was so absorbed in the letter, he probably didn't realized he was smiling widely all the while when he's reading it. I unconsciously decided to stare at him again, but this time more warily and occasionally took a glance somewhere else whenever his cheeks turns cerise, in order not to embarrass him.

Suddenly, to my surprise, his smile falters out of the blue. His pace was paused, right in front of Barley's farm. I was about to ask him what Kai wrote, when Cliff abruptly directed all his attention to me, his eyes widening, and to my utter shock, grabs a hold of my shoulders as he stared right at me.

His hand's shivering, his eyes indicating he's trying to process something huge in his head, and his lips trying to deliver words, "K-Kai found...my sister..."

It took me a while to really understand what he meant, but now that I did, my eyes widened the same way Cliff's are, "WHAT?"

A singular chuckle escaped his throat, then a smile, then a hearty laugh, and finally, unexpectedly, Cliff pulled me in his embrace, hugging me as tightly as he could, truly so happy and relieved and a surge of wild curiosity of his sister's well-being overcame the lad that he didn't take notice whatsoever of the farmer blushing in shock over his shoulder.

His happiness is at a degree so high, that when he released me, he didn't even take into account of what he did would actually be considered as 'awkward' for him on normal terms. I didn't mind, though. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed that... Ironic how I was constraining myself to hug him just a few minutes ago.

Cliff's focus was back towards the letter as his eyes skimmed through the words at blinding speed. "Kai clipped Clarice's letter here..." He mumbled with a smile, and I just stood there, staring at him in wonder, trying to solve the puzzle in my head. Then, I laid out all the clues in my head in neat straight file.

Those two women in the picture, they must have been his mother and his sister. His sister's name is Clarice. Cliff is somehow separated from them, and according to how he reacted at Kai's surprise, he's probably looking from them.

"She's married..." Those two sets of words bubbled over his mouth in shock and surprise, "She's only about Ann's age, my sister..." He turned to me, his eyes slightly glassy at the new discovery. I offered him a smile, and then pat his shoulder in hopes of calming him down.

Cliff in a jumble of emotions is a very rare sight to see, honestly. Though I wouldn't blame him. If my brother somehow lost contact with me and finally found out I'm alive married to a man, he might react the same way. But Jack will trust that man to take care of me, since he's not there to do so, and he knows sisters needed protection. Brothers are simply predictable that way.

The sound of a slap startled me from my thoughts, and there I saw Cliff, with a hand covering his whole face. It took me a while to notice that his shoulders are jerking up and down continuously, and my hand slowly covered my lips. There's a man...crying...in front of me.

"Ohh...Cliff..." Without a moment's thought, probably out of womanly instinct, I wrapped my arms around the lad in an attempt to comfort him. Cliff didn't object the hug surprisingly; in fact he returned it, his whole arms covering my small stature. He rested his head on my shoulder, truly needed a hug more than anything right now, I suppose. As shy as he is, there are moments when hugs are inevitable.

"I'm glad...you found your sister," I whispered into his ear. The snow flakes kept on raining in Mineral Town, thickening the snow on the walk paths. I stared beyond his shoulder as I said that, towards the white crystals of frozen water covering the ground. It must have been quite a shock to Cliff, but he seems to be taking it well.

"Thanks, Claire..."

I may not know the real story, but at least Cliff's happy.

After a moment, we're back on track, with Cliff carefully folding the letters back and store it in his shirt. I can't help but to beam him a smile, and like I expected, he returned the gesture. As we walked pass the Poultry Farm, I thought it might be the perfect time to return what he owns.

"Out of curiosity, is this your sister?" I handed him the photograph from my overalls pocket, still with that same smile. Cliff was so surprised; he let out a singular laugh at how random I am.

"Yes. This is Clarice, my sister. And this is our departed mother," he pointed to the respective women in the photo with a light smile. He took the photo in his hands to stare at it for a long while.

"I'm just glad Kai found her...and she seems so happy with her life. She wrote about this one man who rescued her from the kidnappers, and the only way for them to make it safely across the borders is for them to get married."

I was stunned silent. Kidnappers? _'Goddess, I really need to know the whole story. Agh! ...That's alright, I'll ask Manna tomorrow.'_  
"Oh. Are you okay with that?"

"Yeah. If it's for her safety, then of course. ...Plus, I think she really likes the guy."

I burst out my signature giggles as we're nearing my farm, and Cliff shot me a smile as a response. To my amazement, his smile seems so different now, much more open and unconstraint. It's like...a huge burden has finally been lifted off his shoulders. It's such a magical sight, I've never saw Cliff this genuinely happy all my life.

The ponytailed man was nice enough to send me to my door, and the moment I opened it, Max suddenly flew out lunging...probably passed down from my habit. Of course, I already expected this, so I deftly evaded the auburn dog. So Max ended up knocking Cliff down, then licks him.

"Ah! Hahah! Max! Long time no see, boy!"

Max only weighted down the poor man more and more at the statement. It wasn't long for Cliff to be covered with dog slobber all over him. When the evil dog finally releases its prisoner, Cliff stood up; attempting to dry his face, but then was caught off-guard by a towel flying in his direction.

He blinked dumbly at me for a while, and then used the towel anyhow. I already have that towel hanged at the side of my door specifically for Max's slobber, so I'm prepared in any way possible.

"Thanks," Cliff handed me back the towel and was about to wish me goodnight when something struck me.

"Wait, wait!" I took a glimpse of the time. Noting that it's 11pm, I sighed in relief. The day's not over yet, which means...

"Happy Thanksgiving Day, Cliff~!" Pulling out the remaining piece of chocolate cake and settling it on my palms, I outstretched my arms towards the surprised traveller and shot him one of my widest grins.

Cliff seems to be frozen for a while, chained to the ground, until the slightest colour decorated his cheeks. _'Hah! So now even after founding his sister, Cliff's still Cliff.'_

"T...T-thanks, Claire..." He stuttered like the cute guy he is, I can't stop the growing smile on my lips. Though blushing, he was smiling nonetheless, and the presence of that smile is just the perfect ending for today.

Winter, Friday the 14th, Winter Thanksgiving Festival.

Best festival ever.

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_(A/N: WOOT! Hahah, that was a handful. I though that since Cliff's moment wasn't possible to write with him fainting and all, it was only fair for his ending to be longer than everyone else's. :3 Epic fail on his past, doods, that's why I decided for Cliff to never reveal it. :P Yes, I backspace two whole paragraphs. XD How'd you like it? Took my entire morning to finish it. Hmmm...is this the last chapter, though? O.o Has the fanfic ended? ...That's for you to guess. ;D )_


	11. Epilogue

_(A/N: You clever, clever people. You expected there's another chappie, huh? Well, you're right, since all of your reviews for the last chapter made me all giddy and excited, it would be an honor for Chance and me to whip you up the very last scene to end this fanfic. =D ...Oh, by the way, meet Chance, my writing muse~ We wish you'll enjoy the epilogue!)_

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**CHAPTER 11: EPILOGUE**

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I fluttered open my eyes, adjusting my vision to clear as I stare up the ceiling. Breathing out through the comforter that was pulled up to my nose, I wouldn't want to ruin the moment by spinning my head to see what time is it. Sometimes, it just felt nice to snuggle yourself under the warmth of the covers and try to recall the best things that ever happened.

In my case, the best things that ever happened in Mineral Town.

After the Winter Thanksgiving Festival has finally passed, I could finally sleep peacefully through the nights. The atmosphere in Mineral Town also felt a bit...uplifting, since that day I noticed. The boys are acting strange too, in a good way.

Rick never forgot to deliver the chicken feeds I ordered since the Winter Thanksgiving Festival, but somehow and in some strange twist of fate, he always caught me in a bad time with my chickens, which is indeed beyond embarrassing. So far, he had seen me singing the chicken song, and doing the chicken dance... But that's for the chickens' entertainment, not his! Rick's fine with it anyhow, and pretended he never saw it, to save the last bit of dignity I may have left.

"That's what friends are for!" I always joked for him to keep quiet about it, but that always got his mood down slightly. He smiled anyway, nods courteously then leaves. Next time he returns, he'll catch me in the middle of something embarrassing again, I just know it. Plus, I think Rick's the only man that has ever caught me blushing madly in Mineral Town. I hope he's the ONLY one, since I can trust him to keep my secrets.

Popuri said something ridiculous, pretty close to, "It must be poultry fate!"

Talk about Popuri, there's an issue of Kai's letters. The last person he wrote to is towards Popuri, of course, stating that he's out traveling somewhere pretty rural, more rural than Mineral Town, which might not even have post offices.

So then, all of us haven't got any letters from Kai ever since, which pretty much worries the hell out of me if he's even safe. Popuri's the strongest out of all of us, since she believes with all her heart that Kai's just fine, probably chilling and gaining so much profit from his cooking business. If Kai's in trouble, Popuri said he can escape through anything. He's Kai, after all.

Then, there's Gray. For someone so quiet and socially awkward, it's not so difficult to notice when Gray's acting different. After that truce with him, the blacksmith-in-training literally did seemed slightly...glowing. Happy, even...if that word could even describe Gray. Just looking by the way he's taking in the air, it is so apparent to see he has a new instilled confidence in him, it's just so amazing.

He even greets me in the morning...well, he tried, at least. With me being myself, his optimism won't last long and we'll end up in a fight, of course. After the quarrel is over however, when we're both out of slimy comments to throw at one another, we'll share a laugh, and then continue work with thumbs up. Life has never been so peaceful between both of us. Even Saibara seems to enjoy our newly developed friend-rival relationship.

Doctor Trent took my advice into action the very next day when the weather's fine. It wasn't Wednesday, but it's an exceptionally beautiful day. With Elli's company, Doctor did not only ambled around town, he even had chats with the others, to everyone actually according to Elli's personal report towards me.

He had a great time, and he laughed quite a lot, especially at the inn, since I was present. With Gray. And Ann trying to kill us again for literally bringing down a wall. Huh...Maybe that's the cause of Trent's laughter. Oh well, at least he promised he'll take a breather often with all the fun he had laughing his head off.

The most notable change is definitely from Cliff, though. Ever since the news of his sister reached his notice, he has been incredibly happy that it's now almost impossible to see him frowning. He's still a shy wallflower, but he'll share his smile to anyone passing by his life. Cliff's even starting to get talkative around the people he usually hangs with, namely his roommate, the pastor, and the farmer that initially babbled towards him (though now it's the other way around).

Rumours generated from Manna tell that Cliff's mother died of an illness, and during the time that Cliff was burying the poor woman, his sister was kidnapped. It especially shocked me of how especially ill fate was to him, but then again, it's a rumor. I'm just really glad Clarice is alright. Cliff still kept in touch with his sister through letters, sometimes with phone calls when he isn't so busy. It made us all happy to see Cliff so alive and spirited.

I closed my eyes from staring at the ceiling too long. I haven't heard my chickens clucking, so I doubt it's not even sunrise yet. But I can't fall back asleep. So next, I tried to remind myself what actually happened the rest of the winter month...

10 days after the Winter Thanksgiving Festival is the Starry Night Festival, and as excited as I was to attend that seemingly romantic festival, I'm unable to do so. Why? Because I was sick that very day, out of all days! It annoys me how a simple trip outside through a little rain could break through my defenses and I was chained to my bed for days!

Doctor Trent stopped by my house a few times through my unhealthy period to give a check-up and force-fed me his medicines. Well, he force-fed me Elli's porridge first, and then his stupid medicines. He literally did put me in a straitjacket before he does so too! Where on earth did he get the garment is beyond my imagination, and I do not want to know. No wonder he didn't bring along Elli, the nurse would never allow the straitjacket.

In the dead of night on that same day, I heard my door creaked open. Max heard it too, but he didn't attack the thief, so I thought it must be someone he knew. The dog fell back asleep shortly after that, and seeing that as an okay sign, I dozed off too.

The next morning, on the 25th of Winter, I discovered the stocking Ellen knitted for me that I hanged on my coat hangar seemed a little heavy. When I reached inside the stocking, I could only blink stupidly at the meager supposed-to-be Christmas present some random secret Santa just gave me; a moon stone. _'Cheapskate...'_

Then came the New Year Eve on the last day of Winter. That was an awesome day, with the villagers at the hilltop and everyone's watching the sunrise, it's so perfectly beautiful and symbolic that this year is going to be one heck of an amazing year. I do believe it, I really do.

New Years Day Festival that comes right after that really made me laugh at how ironic it is, since it involves hammering. To celebrate New Years, the villagers in Mineral Town get together to pound Rice Cakes, and believe me, just hearing the word 'pound' made me grinning ear to ear. I even bring along my super upgraded hammer just for the festival.

I have to admit, smashing rice with heavy hammer until it turns into paste is fun. Not only it's fun, when the smooth paste is sweetened, the Rice Cakes were distributed to the villagers for them to take home, and it's incredibly yummy! I still have the Rice Cake stocked in my fridge, honestly. It's such a tasty snack any time of the day, I took home quite a lot.

Now with Rice Cakes flooding my mind, I forced myself to get out of bed, just to reach the fridge and grab myself a Rice Cake. There's still so many; I won't go starving till the end of Summer, I presume. I woke up Max by lightly kicking against him while munching on my snack, then trudged my way to do my early morning duties.

After freshening up and eating breakfast, I went straight outside, totally forgetting to check the calendar like I usually do. Maybe that's why I screamed when a figure approached behind me, only to hand me a plate of cookies. "DOCTOR! Goddess, do not EVER sneak up on me like that!"

Doctor only laughed at how positively frightened I looked, and then stated, "Punctuality is what's important to me." Still patting my heart to try and slow the down the beating rate still by the shock, I mumbled, "Huh?"

Doctor Trent beamed a smile at me and with all the good-naturedness in his deep voice, spoke, "Happy Thanksgiving Day, Claire."

I blinked dumbly, and then rushed to grab his left hand, much to Trent's surprise. I pulled his white sleeve off a bit, to take a glance of the fancy silver watch he's wearing, since I know his watch doesn't just provide him the time, but the date also. "It's 14th of Spring already?"

"Why yes. Why do you think I bring these biscuits for?"

I can't help that growing smile on my face at how terribly innocent Doctor Trent successfully acted with that hurt facade. I never knew matured men would even have this childish side of him, or even show this side to a random woman. ...Or maybe that's a sign of something.

Strangely, I got myself tangled inside Doctor Trent's arm while looking at his watch, since his arm is now around my shoulders and totally got me trapped inside a headlock. "Uh...Doctor. Yeah, I'm...kind of stuck here..."

The white-coated man smirks down at me, and with a surprisingly flirtatious tone, he replied, "Perhaps I'm doing this on purpose?"

Since I have never heard of Trent using that tone, nor using it to ME, my face suddenly grows hot. For a slight moment. Because my arms nimbly grabbed the plate of cookies he's holding with his other hand, thus forcing his half-hugging arm to release me. I escaped, and flipped up in front of him, smiling...trying hard not to show he almost made my heart burst.

"That's sweet, Doctor. That's really sweet. Thanks! ...But those are cookies, not biscuits."

"Aren't they the same?"

"No. No, they aren't," for once, I'm kind of glad that Doctor Trent doesn't know everything.

"Yes, they are. Biscuits and cookies are made from the same things, and baked by the same process, so I assume they are of the same brethren, Claire."

Of course, he wants to be right all the time. "Yeah, I want to state my reasons too, but it's too early in the morning to start pelting on you, so I'll just take the cookies now."

"They're biscuits."

"Thank you for the cookies, Doctor Trent~!"

"Biscuits! At least I follow the tradition here!" Trent laughed as he walked off my farm with a wave, and I waved my hand back with a grin. After storing the cookies—excuse him, BISCUITS, in my fridge, I went right out to water my plantations, happy to be holding my newly upgraded watering can.

Not long after that...

"H-hello, Claire.."

I spun around. With that stuttering, I don't need to see who it is to know that it's Cliff standing there beside my mail box, but hey, spinning around is more dramatic, "Morning, Cliff!"

Cliff was being all adorable with his shuffling feet and having to hold something behind him with both of his hands. I stifled a giggle as I put my watering can down. Knowing myself, anything could be easily ended up in somebody else's roof.

I didn't say anything, merely supporting a light smile on my lips as I made my way towards the ponytailed man. Cliff looks so flustered with every step I took, that it almost seemed like bullying him in a way. "Uh...Cliff, don't scrunch up your face like that, I'm not going to eat you."

He tried to smile after my comment was said, but he hanged his head so low, it's difficult for me to even see it. Hmm...maybe I should talk about something that could make him smile for real. "Hey, so...how's Clarice doing?"

At the mere mentioning of that name, Cliff's face lifted up with such a beam, I would've given myself a pat on the shoulder for that good idea. "Oh, she's been great! In fact, she's the one suggesting I should give you these." That's when he pulls out whatever it is he's hiding behind him, and to my surprise, more cookies!

"Cliff, you really shouldn't..."

"I'm sorry. Since I told her about the festival, she's more excited about it than I am, so..."

"...You don't mean your sister baked these? And shipped it to you? Just so you could give it...to me?"

"...Clarice had this funny notion that you're going to be her...sister-in-law. B-b-but d-don't take that seriously!"

My jaw was already hanging at the awkwardness of it all. I don't even blame Cliff for all that blood suddenly rushing to his face. Frankly, I'm at a loss of words on what to say. That Clarice girl has already grappled her fingers around Cliff, she knows how and what exactly her brother does things, or lack of it, that's why these plate of cookies exist in my hands now. Clarice is actually pushing Cliff to do things he never thought of. At this, an unmistakable grin curved on my lips.

"H...H-happy Spring Thanksgiving Day...Claire."

But no matter how powerful his sister is to even have the power to control the traveller like a marionette without threads, he's still behaving like Cliff. Like how he should be. That's part of his charm, I suppose...and half of me belief Clarice knows of this, and left that innocence of him untouched.

"Would you stop being so freakin' adorable?" That question was from sheer honesty, and rather spontaneous, per se. "You're being so cute all the time that you made people want to hug the life out of you, but then if we do that, you'd scream, and that would automatically be considered as sexual harassment! Did you not realize how awful you made us fangirls lives are?"

Cliff stared, utterly befuddled and confused. His jaw had long dropped, and it's a good thing I already grabbed hold of his cookies, or they would fall off his arms and scattered all around my property. That look of horror in his face was just pure win, so I punched him lightly on his arm to try and wake him up, "I was joking, Cliff!"

At that, the lad tries to laugh, slowly and very unsurely. He seems like he doesn't even know what to do anymore. Guess my joke was too much to process in his system, so I put an able arm around him to lead him out with an air similar to a dignified butler. "Now now, watch your step and follow this adult. See here, this is the pathway to the inn. Now I want you to go there, treat yourself a drink, tell your sister you love her, and acknowledge my sign of gratitude."

Swiftly after that, I shifted my weight to my toes to grant him a kiss on his cheek. Now I'm glad I gave him the instructions earlier, Cliff totally shuts down right after that, unstably made his way to the inn, fumbling but not fumbling. Well, that's his fault for being so charming. "Thanks for the cookies, Cliff!"

Returning back to my kitchen, I stuffed the plate of cookies inside the fridge, then walked back out the door, passing Max waking up on the way. "Get up, you lazy bum, and enjoy the sun!" I hissed at the dog, and then leave the door open to allow Max to exit the house if he wishes to.

"What the hell did you do to the poor guy?" Just as I stepped outside, someone spoke. That voice startled me, and there I saw Gray leaning himself on my mail box. It took me longer than usual to respond to him anything, probably because it's rare to see him actually standing inside my farm without the intention to either pursue a verbal battle, or to get even on something.

"Cliff hits his face onto 4 different walls just now, and I don't even think he realize he's hurt."

"Such is the power of a woman. So Gray, on what occasion do I owe your magnificent presence gracing down upon me?"

The said man snickered, pulling himself off from his leaning object and adjusted his cap, "Did you know I almost blow off somebody's kitchen this morning?"

"Your omnipotence all but amazes me."

"Thank you, it took much more out of me without you."

We shared a snigger, but that moment was cut short when Gray was suddenly belted off from where he stood. It took only a blink of an eye to miss what just happened, and I sure did miss it. Next thing I noticed, Gray was on the ground near to my house, weighted down by one big auburn dog.

"Get... GET OFF, you damn mutt!" Probably influenced as to how I speak of the man towards him, Max had developed a habit of actually liking Gray, finally. In his terms, 'like' is equal to a bucket of slobber layering on the face. Gray is in the middle of that process, actually.

"He just wanted to show he likes you, Gray," I calmly explained.

"I KNOW THAT!"

Well, that got me stunned silent. Gray was clever and strong enough to clamp his palm around Max's nozzle to keep his tongue inside his mouth. Once that out of his way, the blacksmith tried to sat himself up, catch his breath, and then nudged his head towards my mail box.

"Just take the stupid cookies so I can get out of here..."

Again, that got me stunned for a moment, "What stupid cookies?" I haven't noticed the plate carefully balanced on top of my mail box, much less the small flat sweet cakes weighting it. The color is slightly darker than normal cookies, heck even for chocolates, but I decided I won't say anything to it. This is Gray, after all. I'd be surprised if it turned out perfect.

"Are these stupid cookies hand-made?" I dared to ask.

Still sitting on the ground trying to control Max, Gray doesn't even have time to shot me his usual glare. He managed to stand up, pushed the dog away with his leg so it won't attack him again, before rushing out of my farm with a grunt as he passed me by.

I had to bit my tongue not to laugh at the slight flour marks at the back of Gray's jacket, forcing myself to stand still without even a chuckle until he's out of sight and then finally snorted out a laugh at how adorable the image of Gray actually baking is. Part of me wondered whose poor kitchen he vandalized...

Though, the thought of him actually making cookies for me is kind of sweet. I never thought this would be possible, coming from Gray, but since our eternal truce, the blacksmith has been rather pleasant lately. We'd still fight, but he wouldn't go as far as to hurt my feelings anymore. My eyes caught sight of something inside the stack of burnt cookies, and there I found a small card hidden there at the base of the plate.

"Happy Thanksgiving Day, Claire," it wrote. I couldn't help but smiling to myself. This is so like Gray. He's often unable to express anything through words, so I have to admit this is perfect of him to do. Like before, I headed back to the kitchen to store the cookies, now having slight troubles to place in the fridge, since it's so full of Rice Cakes and two other plates of cookies.

After that ordeal, I headed back outside, grabbed the honey from the tree beside my house and carried it straight to my chicken coop, so I can just toss that jar in the shipping bin there. I did just that, and then I went in and out of the coop to get the chickens out into the field one by one. I made a makeshift fence out of stones for the chickens, to keep out wild dogs, but they tend to attack anyhow by jumping over the stones, that's when Max come in.

So the fence is mainly to keep the chickens in, rather than the wild mutts out, actually.

Rick's first ever advise was right. Pet dogs are good at protecting chickens from wild dogs.

After I'm done with the chickens, I was about to go to the barn and push Nessa out into the fresh spring field, though with the fence still unfinished, but the cow's pregnant, so she won't move much anyway. That's when I spotted Rick from afar.

"Excuse me? Claire! You home?"

Somehow, I was overcome by a surge of impish mischief the moment Rick called out and quickly leaned myself at the side of the barn's front door, attempting to hide in the shadows. Max quickly reacted to the chicken farmer, barking happily, to which Rick happily responded and crouch down to pat the dog.

I took this chance to stalk my way unseen (except by Max) all around Rick and maneuvered my way behind him. Never in my wildest imagination that now out of all times would I see myself betrayed, by my own dog, to make it worst.

While I was readying myself to surprise the chicken farmer from behind, Max literally leaped off the ground and rammed itself right towards Rick, who of course had no idea I was behind him. That ultimately led him into being sandwiched in between me and Max.

The worst part is me being under the both of them.

The feeling under that much weight and impact is similar to having squished by two book-filled cupboards. Trust me; Mary's wrath is not what you'd like to experience a second time. My eyeballs felt like it could pop out by the pressure, and there's no way I could breathe being crushed so brutally like this.

Though, I didn't need to worry about not being able to breathe, since that pain was only present for half a second only. Rick literally sprang up the moment he heard me shriek from underneath him. I don't know how he did it, but when I opened my eyes, I could see him standing on his two feet with Max in his arms.

"Claire! Wh..? How'd you get there? I didn't—"

With that alarming tone he's using, I didn't need to look up his face to know Rick's overreacting again. "No, I'm f-fine..." Well, my attempt to reply didn't go well, because I ended up coughing right after that. This horrifies Rick even more.

The chicken farmer literally tosses the dog in his arms over his shoulder before rushing to help me in some way, "Are you okay? Can you breathe? I'm so sorry! Do you need me to fetch the doctor? I didn't see you down there, I'm really sorry!" Yep, only Rick can squeeze his apologies in between his cries of worry like that. I now know why Popuri always push Rick away when he's trying to help.

But that wasn't even his fault.

I was up on my feet in no time with Rick half-supporting me, but I was still a little bit loopy by the squeeze, so I hanged onto him fully for support. He was about to half-carry me to the clinic until I regain back my senses and stopped myself from walking any further, "Wait, where are we going? I'm totally fine now, don't worry."

As fate planned it, Popuri appeared out of no where, skipping merrily towards my farm with a plate of cookies balancing in her grasps. "Rick, you forgot your coo—". She halted the second she sees us though, gasping dramatically, then with the slightest pinkish tint on her cheeks, loudly exclaimed, "YOU TWO WERE KISSING!"

It took me a second to notice that one of my arms is hanging around his shoulder and my other hand is holding one of Rick's shoulders firmly. The chicken farmer, however, had his arm wrapped around my waist to support me, and the other holding onto my arm. That awkward posing was probably during the time when I was fazed, so both of us didn't noticed at all that it would gave out a totally different perception from a third viewpoint.

Us KISSING, especially.

"WHAT?" Both Rick and I parted from each other like rubber, eyes wide, jaws hanging; the usual shock ride. "We did not!" I inwardly cussed at Rick for saying the exact same thing at the exact same time as me.

"Oooooh! I knew it, I KNEW IT!" The pink-haired maiden giggled, rushing towards her brother and handed Rick the plate she was holding, "Hold this. I'm going to tell Mama!" Then off she goes skipping and snickering out of my farm and finally disappeared from our sight by the turn she took.

Slowly, we turned heads towards each other, both beet red and eyes very wide. This goes on for a long while; nothing in the worst cases of my life can beat this moment of epic awkwardness. Max was the first who said anything, well he barked actually in between us, almost as if wanting us to respond or something. The sudden barking surprised both of us, Rick even jumped till a couple of cookies slipped off the plate, to which quickly munched on.

"U-uhm... These...you..." Rick's tongue is still not shaken off by the shock yet, so I tried to see if mine works.

"Y-yeah... I uh...yea... T-this is...sweet..." Or not. _'...Sweet..?'_

I have no idea why, but that made Rick grows even redder, even his ears! So out of pure panic, the spectacled man simply shoved the plate of cookies into my arms, gave me a 90 degrees bow and taking advantage of his face facing the ground, said out loud, "H...h-happy Spring Thanksgiving Day, Claire!"

Though he stuttered in the beginning, his words flowed out smoothly right after that. He didn't even glanced to my eyes as the chicken farmer just turned around and ran off, muttering something inaudible under his breath. I, of course, stood there stupidly at the side of my house, holding a plate of cookies, extremely dumbstruck.

I was staring into nothingness for a few minutes by the shock, it seems.

Somehow, I found myself staring at my mailbox as if in awe of it. A few blinks, and I finally snapped out of it, taking into consideration of what exactly did I stared at. With a cookies-filled plate weighting down my arms, I marched my way to the mailbox, by pure instinct.

The metal clanked as I opened it, and indeed, a beautiful aroma escaped the container. I didn't need to peek in the mailbox to see who it's from, just by seeing how Max suddenly turning hyperactive is enough of a clue for me to guess that it's Kai's wonderful shipped cookies.

"Have a good Thanksgiving Day, Claire! I bet my cookies are the last one you noticed, although I shipped them the earliest. But hey, at least I know you're smiling now~! Love, Kai."

That small simple card really did made me smile, that man really do knows how to handle girls with gifts and flowery words. Though, I know he's doing this for me simply because he's honest about it. Shaking my head, I took out the plate of cookies, neatly wrapped with transparent foil, then balanced it on my other hand.

So here I am, standing in front of my opened fridge, staring blankly at how ridiculously full it is, with both my hands holding two plates of cookies. I blew a piece of my blonde hair off from resting on my forehead, contemplating on what to do...or what to think.

"...I didn't leave any of them behind, and I got multiple plates of cookies. Men in Mineral Town ought to be exposed to the world to be shared among women."

Max barked in agreement from beside me.

"...I still can't choose one."

* * *

_(A/N: YES! Finally, my first ever fic in FF ended! W00T! :D I'm so happy, yay! Yes, in conclusion, Claire is the luckiest girl on HM, yet she can't choose a bachelor. Let's bash her now. XD I didn't want to disappoint my readers by choosing someone for her, since all of the bachelors have their own fans. So yes, this happens, I'm such a dork. :P Ah well, at least each of them has their own moments here, and who knows? You might even silently have taken an interest into another bachelor from your usual choice of heart. :3 This is why multi-pairing-hinting exists. XD)_

_**Thank you so much for reading Chocolate! Hope you enjoyed the whole fanfic, I did this all for you guys! **____** Stay awesome. Long live Harvest Moon!**_


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